THE 



ARK OF THE COVENANT; 



SERIES OF SHORT DISCOURSES UPON THE JOYS, 
SORROWS, GLORIES AND VIRTUES 



EVER BLESSED MOTHER OF GOD. 

■/ 

BY THE REV. THOMAS S. PRESTON. 



" I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother* 
house ; there Thou shalt teach me."— Canticles, viii. 2. 



Jfefa grrrk 




P. O'SHEA, PUBLISHER, 104 BLEECKER, 

AXD 183 GREEN STREET. 
1863. 



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Entered aocording to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 

fly Rev. T. S. PRESTON, 
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York. 



A*/P 



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INTRODUCTION. 



The following chapters are intended 
either as short discourses, or as medi- 
tations -upon the life of the Blessed 
Virgin. 

They have been so arranged as to be 
suitable to the month of May, the first 
chapter being designed for the last day 
of April. But they have a general in- 
terest, and may be useful at any season 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

of the year, since devotion to the holy 
mother of God is always the fruit of 
piety and a great means of sanctihcation. 
The different parts of the volume pre- 
sent continuously a brief history of the 
holiest and best of all God's creatures. 
The author puts forth this little book 
with a sincere desire to aid in the sal- 
vation of souls. He hopes to reach 
some hearts by the simple tale of Mary's 
joys and sorrows, and to beget in them 

a true love for virtue. If he can induce 

i 

even one to imitate more closely the 
example which is here portrayed, he 
will have done enough. Amid constant 
occupations it has been to him a great 
consolation to say a word of gratitude 
in honor of her, whom from the depths 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

of his heart he feels to be the cause of 
all his joy. May she but deign to ac- 
cept this trifling and unworthy offering 
which he lays at her feet, and make it 
instrumental in advancing her interests 
and those of her Son. 

T. S. P. 

New York, Feb. 22, 1860. 



CONTENTS. 



Pacdl 
CHAPTER I. 

Preparation 11 

CHAPTER H. 

The Immaculate Conception — Day of Purity. . 17 

CHAPTER HI. 

Th Birth of the Blessed Virgin— Day of Grace. 24 

chapter rv 
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin — Day 
of Consecration 31 

chapter v. 
The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin —Day 
of Fidelity 39 

chapter-yi. 
The Visitation of St. Elizabeth— Day of Mercy. 46 

CHAPTER VH. 

The Nativity of our Lord — Day of Life 54 

chapter vm. 
The Presentation of our Lord — Day of Praise. 61 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Prophecy of St. Simeon— Day of Fear 69 

CHAPTER X. 

The Flight into Egypt— Day of Self-sacrifice.. 77 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Loss of Jesus in the Temple — Day of Lone- 
liness 85 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way to 

the Cross— Day of Grief 93 

CHAPTER Xin. 
The Death of Jesus — Day of Remorse 100 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Piercing of the side of our Lord— Day of 
Gratitude 108 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Burial of Jesus — Day of Abasement 115 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Resurrection of our Lord — Day of Illu- 
mination 123 

CHAPTER XVH. 

The'Ascension of our Lord — Day of Joy 130 

CHAPTER XVHI. 

The Coming of the Holy Ghost— Day of Peace.137 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Death of the Blessed Virgin— Day of Vic- 
tory 145 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin — Day 
of Union 152 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin — Day of 
Rest 160 

CHAPTER XXH. 

The Office of the Blessed Virgin 167 

CHAPTER XXHI. 

The Faith or the Blessed Virgin 175 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Hope of the Blessed Virgin 183 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Charity of the Blessed Virgin 191 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Humility of the Blessed Virgin 199 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Purity of the Blessed Virgin 207 

CHAPTER XXVIU. 

The Poverty of the Blessed Virgin 214 

CHAPTER XXLX. 

The Obedience of the Blessed Virgin 221 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

The Patience of the Blessed Virgin 229 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Prayer of the Blessed Virgin 236 

CHAPTER XXXH. 

The Union of the Blessed Virgin with God .... 244 



CHAPTER 1. 

PREPARATION. 

" In me is all grace of the way and of the truth ; in me Id 
all hope of life and virtue."— Ecclbsiasticus, xxiv. 25. 

Such is the language of the Holy Spirit 
concerning the Blessed Mother of God* 
And among all her glories there is none 
greater than that of leading sinners in the 
way of life, and guiding the pilgrim to new 
heights of virtue. Indeed, as this is her es- 
pecial glory, so it is her especial office* 
The human heart is weak, and naturally 
tends to things of earth, and has no power 
to seek the more nigged ways of self-disci* 
pline and virtue. The human intellect W 
dark, and with all its endowments it cannot 
see the true light which shines from God. 
It requires a divine grace to touch man^ 
heart with a love that shall turn him from 



12 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

things sensible, and to enlighten his under- 
standing with the truth for the enjoyment 
of which he was created. The Blessed Yir- 
gin is the channel through which God con- 
veys to fallen man this grace of light and 
truth. Her prayers and intercessions bring 
down the grace of conversion, become the 
safeguard of the pilgrim in the perilous 
journey of life, and at last crown him with 
glory when the battle is over and Heaven 
is everlastingly won. She is the Second 
Eve, the Mother of the living race. Her 
eyes of grace are ever turned upon us poor 
exiles, until she has accomplished her work 
of bringing us home, and until she reveals 
unto us, in all his surpassing loveliness, the 
blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. Many a 
soul receives the light of faith who never 
could have obtained that precious gift but 
through her prayers. Many a soul, ready 
to fall under the pressure of temptation, 
beneath the dark shadow of the adversary, 
finds instant relief and strength through 
the grace which she dispenses. 

All good Catholics recognize this office 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 13 

of the Blessed Virgin ; and practical devo- 
tion to her is the peculiar characteristic of 
our religion. She has taken root among 
God's elect, and her power is in Jerusalem. 
She has fulfilled in the Church the language 
of Scripture : "I was established in Zion, 
and in the holy city, likewise, I rested, and 
my power was in Jerusalem. And I took 
root in an honorable people, and in the por- 
tion of my God, his inheritance, and my 
abode is in the full assembly of saints. I 
was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and 
as a cypress tree on mount Sion. I was ex- 
alted like a palm-tree in Cades, and as a 
rose-plant in Jericho."* By the infidel ami 
the heretic she is not honored, for they- 
have no real belief in the mystery of her- 
Son's Incarnation. But by Catholics she is 
honored and served, and in proportion as 
they love and imitate her, do they grow in 
God's grace and in a true devotion to our ^ 
Blessed Lord. 

To us, then, on this day, does the Mother - 
of Grace make her appeal. A day o£ lif a- ' 

♦Eccleb. xxiv. 15—18. f 



14 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and mercy is dawning upon our souls. Na- 
ture and grace are in harmony. The earth 
is robing herself in the verdure of spring, 
and fruits and flowers come forth to enjoy 
the smile of their Creator, as faint emblems 
of the quickening power of God's love in 
the human soul The resurrection of na- 
ture is the image of what the Lord, who is 
the resurrection and the life, will do in our 
barren and wayward hearts. There is ho 
voice speaking to us of the divine justice 
now, and the sinner may come without fear 
to the footstool of his offended but forgiv- 
ing Father. 

Whatever, then, be our condition before 
God, let us improve the graces of the season, 
and open our hearts to the light and mercy 
of our Lord. If we are not in a state of 
grace, now we have power to awaks and 
purify our souls. Great mortal sins may 
weigh heavily upon us, pressing us down to 
tearth, and making ue the easy prey of new 
temptation. Our past is remorse, and our 
future is gloomy apprehension. There is no 
physician in this world who can heal our 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 15 

malady or bring peace to our desolated 
hearts. Yet the Mother of Mercy calls : 
a In me is all grace of the way, in me is all 
hope of life and virtue." Let us listen to 
her voice ; and putting ourselves under her 
protection, let us arise and go unto our 
Lord, and say unto Him : " Father, I have 
sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight." 
The way shall be opened before us, and all 
obstacles shall, one by one, be removed. 
This month shall be to us the beginning of 
a new life, and shall end in our complete re- 
covery and salvation. And even if through 
God's mercy we are free from deadly sin, 
we have all much need of the especial 
graces which are now offered to us. Are 
we not suffering in many ways from the ef- 
fect of past sins ? Are we not full of im- 
perfections, which render us unfit to appear 
before God's presence ? How very few of 
us live up to our consciences, and can bear 
the light even of our own self-examination. 
Yet God's all-searching eye is to be our 
judge. If we make up the record of the 
years that are past, we shall find a his- 



16 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

tory of mercies despised and graces un- 
improved ; and the little that has been 
done, seems to have been done rather 
against our will than by our free co opera- 
tion. Coldness and tepidity are only pre- 
ludes to mortal sin, and we have, therefore, 
good reason to be alarmed by the indiffer- 
ence we feel in the pursuit of virtue. Many 
of us have received the Sacraments with 
great frequency, and still have made but 
little progress in self-discipline. We have 
always the same sins to confess, and the 
least close inspection shows us an amazing 
depth of pride and self-will. What shall 
we do, when God calls us, and we have to 
stand before Him, in whose sight the small- 
est imperfection cannot abide ? This very 
month may be a crisis in the history of our 
souls. If it be well spent, its especial graces 
may avert some threatening temptation and 
awaken us to more careful lives. If it be 
neglected, the days of our spiritual life may 
be numbered. Let us, then > as we seek for 
salvation, prostrate ourselves before the 
footstool of the Mother of Mercy, and com- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 17 

mit our cause to her hands. If our hearts 
be ready, she will do her work. She will 
bring our needs before the throne of her 
Divine Son, and we shall feel a power in 
spiritual things which we never have ex- 
perienced. Let it be our constant prayer 
during this season of grace, that God would 
prepare our hearts to hear and obey all His 
inspirations. 



CHAPTER n. 

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION — DAY OF PURITY. 

" Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee." 
Cant. iv. 7 

We begin our meditations where God be- 
gan His work of grace, with the first ex- 
istence of our blessed Mother. From all 
eternity He had foreknown her, and from 
the hour of man's sad fall had predicted 
her. She was the promised seed of the wo- 



18 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

man, who should bruise the head of the 
serpent ; the Second Eve, who should repair 
the losses of our first mother. God, w T hose 
infinite wisdom devised the way of our re- 
demption, condescended to take our nature 
upon Him, and His first step in the gra- 
cious work was the preparation of a Mother. 
All our race were condemned, and under 
the original curse were subject to the tyran- 
ny of the devil. The tree was corrupt at 
its root, and the spring poisoned at its 
source. The children of the fallen Eve were 
exiles from Heaven. The work of redemp- 
tion needed to be as complete as was the 
destruction wrought by sin. It began, 
therefore, by the removal of the original 
curse. A Virgin was conceived, free from 
corruption and pure as was our first Mother 
when she was placed in Paradise. With- 
out this grace of redemption, she never 
could have been a Second Eve, and the 
Mother of a new and living race. The ser- 
pent who deceived the first Eve had no 
power over her, for she was the child of 
prophecy, who was to bruise his head. She 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 19 

was to overcome the devil in every point, 
and this she could not have done had she 
been at any time his child and slave by 
virtue of the original curse. Her own of- 
fice, therefore, in the economy of redemp- 
tion, required that she should be conceived 
without sin, and God was bound by the 
perfection of His own being to make a per- 
fect work. But all this grace the Blessed 
Virgin was to have, because the Eternal 
Son of God had chosen her for His Mother. 
The Word was to be made flesh, to take 
our human nature and to unite it forever to 
His divine person. The incarnate Lord is 
no less the Son of Mary, than He is the Son 
of God. As He was therefore to take of 
the veritable substance of His Mother, so 
He was directly concerned in her honor or 
in her dishonor. Had she been the child 
of the fallen race, infected by the original 
curse, her ignominy would have passed to the 
dishonor of her Son. The spring of life 
would have gushed up from a polluted 
source, the stem of Jesse would have bud- 
ded from a corrupting root. He, who is 



20 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

all purity, would have touched the defile- 
ment of the impure. The propriety of the 
incarnation demanded the grace of which 
faith teaches us, and Mary, with inno- 
cence redolent of the purity of Eden, is 
created for the honor of Jesus, to glorify 
Him by her holiness, and to be for Him an 
unspotted Mother. 

Among all her joys, Mary had no greater 
joy than this of her pure conception. It 
was the foundation of her exalted holiness, 
by which she towered above the tall cedars 
of Libanus, and raised her Yirginal head to 
the skies. She came into a world of sin 
and death. She saw around her sorrow 
and distress, the ruins and wrecks of a fallen 
world. She saw how God's great majesty 
was hourly outraged, and how His amazing 
love was spurned every moment by His own 
creatures. Yet with all this she had noth- 
ing to do. Her soul and body were fra- 
grant with the incense of purity. She knew 
she had never offended her God, her first- 
beginning and her last end. She was not 
one of the ruins of the first Paradise. Ori- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 21 

ginal sin weighs upon us with all its griev- 
ous burden. We no sooner come into the 
world than we begin to be offensive to 
God. Our souls suffer from the dark- 
ness of ignorance and from the stimulus of 
concupiscence. Our bodies are the prey of 
disease and death. And as soon as we ar- 
rive at the age of reason, when our opening 
faculties ought to expand in God's grace 
and for His glory, we begiii by our wills to 
turn from holiness. Actual sin develops it- 
self in all its bitterness, and with all its 
fruitful power of evil. How different from 
this sad history was Mary's life. No dark- 
ness ever weighed upon her understanding. 
No cloud ever came between the bright mir- 
ror of her soul and the light of God. She 
was the " bright reflection of the Eternal 
Light, a mirror without a stain/' Her heart 
was never swayed by passion, nor was there 
ever a tumult to disturb the tranquil rest 
of her spirit. God's graces came, and they 
were all improved. God's blessed provi- 
dence, like a shield, covered her, and from 
His will she never swerved. What a cause 



22 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

have we to bless and praise our great Crea- 
tor for the purity of Mary ! There was one 
heart in which the infinite majesty of God 
found a rest, one bosom in which the In- 
carnate Lord might find a home. With us 
the memory of the past is ever painful, for 
at every step we take in the divine life, we 
feel more keenly the ingratitude of former 
sins, and can never altogether banish the 
shadow which they throw upon our spiritual 
being. We are like sick men recovering 
from an exhausting fever, or like the maimed 
and wounded soldier returning from battle. 
Hence, our present loses its cheerfulness 
and joy. We are wearied by small en- 
deavors, and go heavily, as if beneath a 
painful burden. And the future, which 
ought to be bright with hope, as it reveals 
the distant towers of the celestial city to 
which we journey, fills us rather with dread 
and an unquiet apprehension. There is no 
cross like the weight of sin, no joy to be 
compared to the blessedness of innocence. 
While then we meditate to-day on the Im- 
maculate Conception of our Blessed Mother, 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 23 

let us seek to imitate her purity aud to 
have part in her joy. We cannot be free 
from the infection of sin as she was, but we 
have been once washed from every defile- 
ment in the blood of her Son. Had we 
died in the cleanness of our baptism, Heaven 
would have been oui immediate portion. 
Now by penance and prayer we must anew 
wash ourselves in the sacred blood which 
we have despised, until the heart of a child 
come back to us with the docility and pu* 
rity of our new birth. This baptism of 
tears is our only hope, and God, who excites 
in us the desire for purification, will make 
that desire fruitful. The Immaculate Vir- 
gin, who is our example, will be our solace 
and protection. At her feet we must offer 
up every thought and word and work. 
Every intention must be placed in her hands, 
and through the virtue of her prayers we 
shall have courage to persevere and be gen- 
erous with God. A healing, cleansing 
power shall be felt in our souls, going down 
to the very depths of our wants, and giving 
us no rest until we find uDion with Him 



24 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

whom we adore, until we are purified even 
as He is pure. For "We are now the 
sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared 
what we shall be. We know that when He 
shall appear we shall be like to Him, be- 
cause we shall see Him as He is."* 



CHAPTER III, 

THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN — DAY OF 
GRACE. 

" When I was a little clr.ld, I was pleasing to the Most 
High." — Office of the Blessed Virgin. 

As the whole life of our Blessed Lady 
was full of wonders, so her birth was es- 
pecially marked by God's grace. Her holy 
parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, were past 
age, and had almost relinquished their part 
in the hope of being the progenitors of the 
Messiah. Still they were firm believers in 

*1 E. St. John iii 2. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 25 

the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, and exact observers of all the ordi- 
nances of the Jewish law. Almighty God 
was preparing them for the exalted dignity 
which awaited them, and they were obedient 
to His graces. As Sarah waited long for the 
child of promise, and then became a mother 
by a miraculous providence, so St. Anne was 
to wait in hope and faith, and then by an es- 
pecial dispensation to become the mother of 
the Queen of Heaven. He that waiteth for 
God shall never be disappointed, but shall in 
the end receive graces far beyond even his 
desire. So St. Anne had never dreamed of 
the honor which God gave her, but her pa- 
tience and humility obtained a reward far 
beyond her hopes. And hence new glory 
was given to God, for although the Blessed 
Virgin was conceived in the ordinary man- 
ner, yet it was by especial and miraculous 
power. 

We have already spoken of the Immacu- 
late Conception, and now in the birth of our 
Blessed Lady we are to see some of its 
glorious consequences. The human soul is 



26 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the direct subject of grace, while the body 
participates only in the effect of either 
the state of grace or the state of sin. 
So the soul of the Blessed Virgin came 
pure and spotless from the hand of her 
Creator, and by her especial privilege she 
was freed from all the effects of the ori- 
ginal curse. Ignorance and darkness were 
not her portion, and hence from the first 
beginning of her existence she began to 
glorify God. u My soul doth magnify the 
Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, 
my Saviour." She was the child of grace, 
and was filled with grace from her mother's 
womb. She was able, moreover, to corre* 
spond with grace even before her birth, and 
to glorify God before her eyes were opened 
upon this sinful world* The fathers tell us 
that she had attained to great sanctity, 
and that at her birth she came into the 
world a marvel of the love and mercy of 
her Maken Just, and true, and perfect are 
all the divine ways, and so the eternal Son, 
in preparing a Mother^ could deny her no 
grace of which she was capable. St. Thomas 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 21 

says that the Blessed Virgin was full of 
grace in three ways. Her holy soul, from 
the beginning, belonged entirely to God. 
Her body was wholly sanctified in order 
that she might clothe the eternal Word 
with flesh, and she was the channel of grace 
for the benefit of the human race. 

We see, therefore, how much she glori- 
fied the wisdom and goodness of God, and 
how her birth contributed to His praise. 
She came into the world not only pure and 
spotless in her soul, but united to her Crea- 
tor and filled with His love. She did not 
see " through a glass in an obscure manner, " 
for the mist that veils sensible things, and 
makes them attractive, was dissolved be- 
fore the vision of her understanding. She 
saw God alone in all things, and she glorified 
every moment His adorable will. Her 
body was until then he most beautiful work 
of God's hands, the fit habitation of her 
sanctified soul. And when she opened her 
eyes upon nature and rested her infant head 
upon her aged mother's arms, God received 
an immense honor, such as He had never 



28 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

received before from any of His creatures. 
The brightest archangel in all his dazzling 
splendor was not so beautiful in His eyes 
as the infant grace of Mary, the child of 
promise, who had already wrestled victori- 
ously with the strong adversary, who was 
fore-ordained the chosen Mother of his well- 
beloved Son. Over that cradle of the Im- 
maculate, angels bowed themselves, while 
evil spirits fled away in terror. With her 
birth began a new day of grace for fallen 
man, and the long line of the living, regen- 
erate race seemed in spirit to cluster around 
the birth-place of their Mother. The morn- 
ing star arose, and the divine purposes were 
ripening, and the great work of man's re- 
demption approached its completion. The 
beginning was the sure pledge and fore- 
taste of the end. Mary was born full of 
grace for our sakes, in order that she might 
communicate it to her fellow-creatures. 
She was born holy ; she was born to be 
the Mother of God ; but she was also born 
to be our great intercessor with her Son, to 
shield us with her prayers, and to eommuni- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 29 

cate to the church the benefits of the In- 
carnation and the Cross. While, then, in 
contemplating the glories of Mary's birth, 
our first thought is of God's honor, our 
second thought should be of the graces we 
have received in consequence of this very 
birth. On this day we should review our 
lives past, and count up the mercies we have 
to answer for in the great day of account. 
If we cannot answer for our thousand sins, 
how can we answer for our thousand graces ? 
We have sinned against the light, and 
against the monitions of our own con- 
sciences. We have no excuse to plead for 
our wayward course, for God has all along 
been following us, and His Spirit has been 
continually calling us to repentance. We 
can see His hands in all the dispensations 
of His providence. Here He gave us joy, 
that by His goodness He might turn our 
hearts. Here He gave us affliction, that He 
might draw our affections from earthly vani- 
ties to an enduring good. No father ever 
followed an erring child with more patient 
affection than our Lord has followed us. 



30 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

To use His own words, He has stood at the 
door of our hearts knocking, like a suppli- 
ant, for entrance, and we have more than 
once refused to let Him in. How unlike 
we are to our Blessed Mother, in whose 
heart every grace of God was fruitful ! 
Yet even now it is the day of grace with 
us, and Mary calls to us by the beauty of 
her childhood, wholly consecrated to her 
Creator, to turn from the sins which have 
made so barren our spiritual life. Now 
God calls us, and gives the power to obey 
His call. Whether we be in the morning 
of life, or in the noonday of manhood, or in 
the evening of declining age, we have much 
to do before our probation closes. Time is 
short, and eternity is long. That which our 
hands find to do, let us do it with all our 
might, for the night cometh when no man 
can work. This sacred month will be to 
us a new responsibility, as it is a new grace 
from God, destined to effect the great end 
of our being, the salvation of our souls. 
Let us accept this merciful interposition of 
our Lord, and open our hearts, and stir up 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 31 

our wills to obey His call. The grace which 
filled the soul and body of the infant Virgin 
will overflow to us, and enable us to walk 
in her footsteps. 



CHAPTER IV, 

THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 

DAY OF CONSECRATION. 

" Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one 
and come." — Canticles ii. 10. 

We have seen how Mary was pure from 
every stain, and how her infant years were 
filled with God's grace ; we are now to con- 
template the fruits of her early sanctity in 
her immediate and entire consecration to 
the service of her maker. The Fathers 
tell us that the holy parents of the Blessed 
Virgin had made a covenant with God that 
the child, for whom they had so long prayed, 
should be dedicated to Ills service. When, 



32 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

therefore, so unexpectedly they received an 
answer to their prayers, they were not back- 
ward to fulfil their promise. Although the 
wonderful holiness and surpassing loveliness 
o; their child had endeared her to their 
hearts, yet they could not resist the claim 
of God. They had nearly finished their 
earthly course, and full of faith in the cove- 
nant made with their fathers, were almost 
ready to find their rest in the bosom of 
Abraham, yet they were ready to give up 
the solace and glory of their declining days, 
content to make any sacrifice to which the 
Divine Providence called them. No parents 
had ever made such a sacrifice, and it was 
their consolation that they gave all they had 
to God, and that in so doing they made the 
most acceptable offering His Divine Majesty 
had ever received. They knew the value of 
their offering in their own eyes, but they 
did not then know its full value in the eyes 
of God. So he who walks by faith and in 
all things seeks only God, may often find 
that his feeble works have a value far be- 
yond his imagination. Sacrifices cheerfully 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 33 

made are the highest proof that we are 
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

When the Blessed Virgin was only three 
years old, following her own wish and the 
Divine Inspiration, St. Joachim and St. 
Anne set out from Nazareth for Jerusalem. 
They took the holy child in their arms, and 
hastened to bear her to the altar of God. 
It was a long journey at their advanced 
age, yet He who was their guide was their 
support. They were consoled in their be- 
reavement by the hope of the redemption 
of Israel, which was far nearer than their 
faith divined. They entered the temple and 
presented their offering at the foot of the 
holy altar. The priest, who, according 
to tradition, was Zachary, the father ot 
St. John Baptist, received the child and 
offered her to God. The Blessed Virgin 
was filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost, 
and anticipating the act of her parents, she 
made a solemn consecration of herself to the 
service of her Creator. All her gifts, and 
all her faculties of soul and body, had ever 
oeen devoted to God, but now before men 
3 



34 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and angels she makes the open profession 
of her love. Here, according to the testi- 
mony of the fathers, she made the vow of 
virginity, choosing rather to renounce her 
hope of being the Mother of the Messiah, 
than to give up the imperishable glory of her 
immaculate purity. What was the world 
to her ? Nothing human had power to 
draw her heart from Heaven and the world 
of grace in which she lived. She heard the 
voice of her celestial spouse : " Arise, make 
haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, 
and come." " One is my dove, my perfect 
one is but one ; she is the only one of her 
mother, the chosen of her that bore her. 
The daughters saw her and declared her 
most blessed, the queens and concubines, 
and they praised her. Who is she that 
Cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as 
the moon, bright- as the sun, terrible as an 
army set in array."* 

It is an unspeakable consolation to think 
of the great glory which God received on this 
auspicious day. No created thing had ever 

* Canticles vi. 8—9. 



ABK OF THE COVENANT. 35 

paid Him such honor. Angels in all their 
purity had prostrated themselves, and cheru- 
bim and seraphim had veiled their faces be- 
fore His unapproachable Majesty, yet never 
had He received a worship as acceptable as 
this worship of Mary. She was pure as the 
crystal waters of Paradise, and as she knelt 
in all humility, all Heaven seemed to rest 
upon her, and the three persons of the 
Eternal Trinity were bowed in condescen- 
sion upon that little child. Wonderful 
spectacle, full of joy both for Heaven and 
for earth. God accepted her vow, and re- 
ceived her for His own, and she became the 
Queen of that Virgin train that " follow the 
Lamb withersoever He goeth." 

There are two important lessons for us 
to learn on this. day. God requires us to 
consecrate ourselves to His service, and to 
do it with the dispositions which made 
Mary's offering so acceptable. In whatever 
state we are called to work out our salva- 
tion, consecration is the essence of the reli- 
gious life. God demands our hearts, and 
Vill accept nothing less from us. We are 



36 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

consecrated by baptism and emancipated 
from the tyranny of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. Thrice happy are they who 
can retire from all things earthly, to espouse 
themselves, like Mary, to Him whom the 
angels serve. Yet, in every walk, the chris- 
tian life is essentially the same. We can- 
not hope to save our souls except our con- 
secration be entire. And this embraces the 
devotion of our affections and the oblation 
of every faculty of soul and body. We 
cannot serve God and the world, or hope 
to win Heaven when our affections are fas- 
tened on earthly things. And how few are 
there in any walk of life who are equal to 
this consecration ! The world is ever inter- 
fering between our souls and God, and we 
are easy victims to its snares. We try to 
persuade ourselves that we are living for 
Heaven, while in reality every day augments 
our account of pride and self-will, and 
human respect. No one but God can sound 
the depths of deceit and self-seeking, which 
are found in the human heart. Let us 
pray our Lord to prove and try us, and to 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 37 

jsee if " there be any way of iniquity in us, 
and to lead us in the way eternal" 

But we are bound not only to cousecrate 
ourselves to God with the perfect devotion 
of every faculty ; we are also called to imi- 
tate the dispositions of our Blessed Mother. 
She gave every thing to God, and she gave 
all immediately, reserving no will of her 
own. Her heavenly master called, and 
she obeyed without consulting with flesh 
and blood. So when we make our offering 
we should place no limitations to our gift. 
We should reserve nothing, no creature, no 
corner of our hearts. God may take us at 
our word, and then we should leave all in 
His hands, convinced that His will can only 
work out our highest good. This is the 
royal road of sanctification. And when He 
speaks to our souls we should listen to His 
voice. It is the music of Heaven. And 
when we hear we should instantly obey. 
0, what heights of virtue are within our 
reach ! What numberless graces all do- 
pending upon our consent ! The more 
carefully we listen, the more often God will 



38 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

speak, until at last He becomes our ever- 
present guide, making all our repose, and 
peace, and happiness. Let us come, then, 
to-day to Mary's altar with our oblation. 
Let us place ourselves in her hands. Let 
us ask for the same spirit of consecration 
which she had, and beg her to present us 
before her Son. To Him let our future lives 
be dedicated. For Him let us breathe every 
breath, speak every word, and do every 
action. He will -accept repentance for the 
past, if there be only a steady will for the 
present, and a firm resolve for the future. 
Let us say with the royal psalmist, u For 
what have I in Heaven, and besides Thee 
what do I desire upon earth ? For Thee 
my flesh and my heart have fainted away. 
Thou art the G-od of my heart, and the God 
that is my portion for ever."* 

*Psalm, Ixxii. 26. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ANisTJNCIATIOX OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 

DAY OF FIDELITY. 

" The voice of my Beloved, behold He cometh, leaping 
upon the mountains, skipping over the hills."— Cast. 2 — 8. 

The whole early life of the Blessed Vir- 
gin had been spent in the uninterupted ser- 
vice of God. From the hour of her conse- 
cration in the temple she had no thought but 
of Him, and no wish but to do His will in 
all things. Her soul was enlightened to 
see God, and filled with the continual con- 
templation of His perfections. No human 
mind can imagine the perfection to which 
she had attained ; but we know that no 
creature had ever received such graces, and 
that every grace was improved to her sanc- 
tification. In the temple, before the altar, 
assisting at the daily sacrifice, she prayed 



40 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

constantly for the redemption of Israel. 
She prayed for the coming of the Messiah. 
As she has since revealed to St. Eliza- 
beth, she prayed that she might live to 
see the mother of the Christ, and that she 
might serve her with her own hands, and 
praise her with her lips, and minister to 
her necessities. She knew by the prophets 
that the day of redemption was drawing 
nigh, and she was so taken into the coun- 
sels of God that she could see His purposes 
ripening every day. As the hour of the 
Incarnation approached, the Divine Provi- 
dence directed that she should be espoused 
to St. Joseph. That holy and spotless 
Saint had been chosen for her protector, 
and she consented to the espousals, fully 
understanding that nothing should ever in- 
fringe Upon the sovereign right of her 
celestial spouse. God's will was her only 
rule, and St. Joseph was to her only an 
image of the Eternal Father, before whom 
every wish was bowed in obedience. It is 
almost a foretaste of Heaven to contem- 
plate this life of Mary, and to think how 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 41 

she was glorifying God. And the Infinite 
Majesty was drawn by her very loveliness, 
and the Divine eyes looked away even 
from the rapt adoration of Seraphim and 
Cherubim, of all the angelic host, to rest 
upon His meek handmaiden, whose worship 
was more pleasing to Him than that of all 
the armies of His courts. So grew this 
" fair plane-tree by the waters, yielding a 
sweet smell like cinnamon, and stretching 
out her branches of honor and grace." She 
was only fourteen years old, and in the 
perfect beauty of womanhood, when the 
fullness of time came, land that, which her 
humility has never dared to anticipate, was 
accomplished. God was coming not to 
take up His abode in her heart, for there 
long had He dwelt, but to become in very 
truth her child. All humble, all unconscious 
of her dignity, she knelt in the temple, 
praying for more and more perfect union 
with her Beloved, when at once all the 
light of sense seemed to depart, and the 
bright light of Heaven to come in upon her 
soul. The Archangel Gabriel knelt before 



42 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

her, and the pinions of unseen angels cov 
ered her, and the celestial messenger spoke 
his "Ave Maria." "Hail Mary, full of 
grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art 
thou among women."* Then he revealed to 
her the mystery of the incarnation, and 
how she had found favor with God, and 
had been chosen of all the daughters of 
earth to become the mother of the Most 
High. There was one moment of fear and 
suspense, until she was assured that neither 
her sacred vow of virginity should be vio- 
lated nor her immaculate purity sullied. 
Then, meekly and humbly, she consented to 
this new and incomprehensible grace, with 
all its trials and with all its glories. " Be- 
hold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done 
to me according to thy word." Then the 
Holy Ghost came upon her, and the power 
of the Most High overshadowed her. Who 
can describe the joy of this blissful moment, 
far surpassing all the consolations of the 
saints ? A more than angelic ecstacy 
overwhelmed all the powers of soul and 

*St. Luke, i. 28. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 43 

body, and her God, her Beloved, came 
leaping upon the celestial mountains, skip- 
ping over the hills of earth, and in an in- 
stant He was not only her Creator — He 
was her child. Before her enraptured vis- 
ion was the sight of the eternal Trinity, 
and in her sod that grace of perfect union 
which no tongue can describe. Well might 
she say, M I languish with love. His left 
hand is under my head, and His right hand 
shall embrace me."* Alas, our faith is 
feeble, and our intellect staggers, and we 
can never measure the length and breadth 
and depth and height of this great mystery. 
We cannot measure the condescension of 
the Divine Majesty — we cannot measure 
the infinite elevation of Mary. If it is a 
joy to possess God as He reveals Himself 
to the elect ; if it is bliss to know Him as 
the angelic spirits whom He ravishes with a 
torrent of untold delight, what must have 
been Mary's ioy at this awful moment ? 
She found, in an ineffable way, her Beloved 
whom she sought. She could never be 

* Canticles, ii. 5 



44 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

separated from Him. She was nearer to 
Him than any other creature ever could be, 
and the mountain tops of heroic sanctity 
were nothing to her elevation. She was 
folded in the complacency of the eternal 
Trinity, the daughter of the Father, the 
mother of the Son, the spouse of the Holy 
Ghost. We behold, therefore, on this day, 
the accomplishment of the primeval prophe- 
cy and the actual redemption of our race. 
We see the faithfulness of God, who in His 
own good time fulfils all His promises. 
The covenant with Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob was kept notwithstanding the in- 
gratitude and rebellion of nearly the whole 
chosen nation. The light which the 
prophets saw at a distance was the divine 
light. tl A virgin had conceived/' and the 
name of her child was Emmanuel, " God 
with us." The faith of the patriarchs was 
realized, and the first Adam, who was only 
a living soul, rejoiced in the coming of the 
second Adam, a quickening spirit, the 
Lord from Heaven. And Mary's great 
dignity was also a reward to her fidelity. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 45 

She had never disobeyed even in thought 
the will of God. She had made good use 
of every grace, and it was her recompense 
not only to be united to the Author of 
Life, but to conceive in her chaste womb 
Him whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot 
contain. So the Master whom we serve is 
always better than His promise, and if we- 
were only faithful to Him, we should obtain 
joys of which this world has no knowledge. 

How often has God sought us, and in 
how many thousand ways has He shown 
His especial favor toward us ! 

His advances have been met by coldness, 
indifference, or ingratitude. He has sought 
to unite Himself to us, and we have sought 
the friendship of the world, the satisfaction 
of our own pride, and the gratification of 
passion. Let us learn by Mary's fidelity, 
and her great reward, to correspond more 
faithfully to the divine mercy toward our 
souls. The voice of our beloved Redeemer 
is really calling us. Let us seek to return 
to Him some of that love which He has so 
squandered upon our ungrateful hearts. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE VISITATION OF ST. ELIZABETH — DAY OP 
MERCY. 

' * Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord 
should come to me." — St. Luke, i. 43. 

It is not for us to know the unspeakable 
delight which ravished the soul of the 
Blessed "Virgin while she was bearing her 
God in her chaste womb. She enjoyed a 
nearness to God of which no creature can 
have a just conception, and the Holy Ghost 
has not been pleased to reveal much of the 
blessedness of her interior life. We are to 
contemplate to-day one of her acts of char- 
ity, by which she was made the minister of 
grace to others, and by which God testified 
to the coming of His Son. Her cousin, St. 
Elizabeth, had conceived a child in her old 
age, and the circumstance was well known 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 47 

to the Blessed Virgin. The archangel 
Gabriel, who came to her on the glad mis- 
sion, which had been the cause of all her 
joy, had been a messenger to Zachary, fore- 
telling the birth of the forerunner of her 
son. And Zachary had been unable to tell 
of the heavenly vision ; for the angel, to 
punish him for his doubt, and also to give 
a sign to his faith, had closed his lips 
until the prophecy should be accomplished. 
St. Elizabeth had conceived, and was now 
in the sixth month of her pregnancy, when 
our Lord incited His mother to visit her 
for the manifestation of His power and 
glory. And " Mary rose up and went with 
haste into the mountainous country, to He- 
bron, a city of Juda." It was the impulse 
of the Holy Ghost which she obeyed with 
alacrity. She entered into the house of 
Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. This salu- 
tation was like a divine voice to her ears. 
The l ' infant leaped in her womb," and she 
w was filled with the Holy Ghost." The 
forerunner received strength to pay homage 
to the Messiah, and Elizabeth felt the pre?- 



48 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ence, not of her cousin, but of the mother 
of her God. She cried out with a loud 
voice. The Eternal Spirit spoke through 
her lips. " Blessed art thou among wonieu, 
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And 
whence is this to me that the mother of my 
Lord should come to me ? For, behold, as 
soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded 
in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped 
for joy. And blessed art thou that hast 
believed, because those things shall be ac- 
complished that were spoken to thee by 
the Lord."* The uninterrupted ecstacy of 
the holy Mother then took a higher strain, 
and she spake her more than angelic Mag- 
nificat : " My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
Saviour. Because He hath regarded the 
humility of His handmaid ; for behold 
from henceforth all generations shall call 
me blessed. For He that is mighty hath 
done great things to me, and holy is His 
name. And His mercy is from generation 
to generation, to them that fear Him. He 

* St. Luke, i. 42-5. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 49 

hath showed might in His arm ; He hath 
scattered the proud in the conceit of their 
heart. He hath put down the mighty from 
their seat, and hath exalted the humble. 
He hath filled the hungry with good things, 
and the rich He hath sent empty away. 
He hath received Israel His servant, being 
mindful of His mercy, as He spake to our 
fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever."* 
Wonderful words, fit for the Mother of God 
to magnify her Lord and Saviour. And 
Mary abode with St. Elizabeth about three 
months, discharging the office of charity, 
and instructing her in the ways of the di- 
vine providence, and then returned to her 
own house in Nazareth. Such is the simple 
scripture narrative of the visitation of the 
Blessed Virgin. The Holy Ghost has 
thought it so important that it could not 
be passed over in silence, among the many 
things concerning our Lord which never 
have been written. Almighty God by it 
testified to the dignity of His mother and 
the truth of His incarnation. It was by no 

*St. Luke. i. 40— 55. 



50 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

human power that Elizabeth saw in her 
meek and humble cousin the Mother of God. 
Flesh and blood never have revealed to any 
soul this great mystery. The Holy Ghost 
opened her oyes, and put upon her lips the 
words which were to be echoed in the 
church forever after, forming the joy and 
solace of all the faithful : " Blessed art 
thou among women, and blessed is the fruit 
of thy womb, Jesus." St. John the Baptist, 
too, was miraculously conceived, that he 
might go before the Redeemer to prepare 
His way. An infant in his mother's womb, 
he had strength to feel the presence of the 
Lamb of God, and to adore Him, and to 
testify, even before his birth, to Him for 
whom he was to live and die. And Mary, 
not only for herself, but for us and for all 
her children, exulted in the work of redemp- 
tion, and taught us the strain of lowly 
praise which ever finds acceptance in the 
ears of the Most High. 

By this wonderful event also, the Blessed 
Virgin discharged her office of minister of 
grace to others. It was her voice that 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 51 

awoke the faith of Elizabeth and caused 
her to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Her 
6teps brought the Son of God to the ado- 
ration of His forerunner, and caused him to 
be sanctified in his mother's womb. For 
according to the common tradition of the 
church, St. John was then purified from 
original sin, and made pleasing to God. 
Hence we celebrate his holy nativity be- 
cause he was born in grace. Mary was the 
instrument through which God was pleased 
to confer these favors. She was made the 
channel of new and wonderful grace to 
Elizabeth and her child. Her visitation 
was the day of unspeakable mercy to all 
that household. So is it ever. Where 
Mary comes, divine grace attends her steps ; 
and wherever she gees, her Son goes with 
her. She brings to us the blessed fruit of 
her womb, the Author of Life. She con- 
firms our faith, strengthens our hope, and 
teaches us how to love. She is the morning 
star of our early life, shedding its ray of 
purity over the dangers of our opening 
tears, the bright sun of our noonday, driv- 



52 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ing away the shadows from the path of 
anxious manhood, and the evening light, 
purpling the decline of our day and illumin- 
ating the clouds of our sunset. She is our 
shelter in storm and tempest, a strong army 
in battle array in the hour of conflict. Her 
visitations of our soul are days of mercy, 
and if we improve them, they will end in an 
eternal and unbroken day. No doubt we 
can recall many such visitations. She has 
spoken to us when good desires came pour- 
ing in upon our hearts, when the shadow of 
the adversary darkened our path and 
blinded our vision, when the sight of our 
numberless infidelities almost destroyed our 
courage. After a fall she has come to us 
with her cheering words, and she has ever 
been at the foundation of any work we 
have raised for God. This day and this 
month she visits our souls. She finds 
little in them to attract her, but the hope 
of making them fit tabernacles for her Son 
to dwell in, the hope of redeeming them 
from the misery of sin to His endless praise. 
The voice of her salutation sounds in our" 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 53 

ears. It will fill us with the Holy Ghost. 
It will detach us from the world and our 
besetting sins. It will nerve us against the 
temptation which now threatens us, and 
help us to a complete conquest of ourselves. 
Let us listen to this voice and follow its 
counsels, and make haste to render our- 
selves worthy of our spotless guest, that 
she may not only visit us but abide with 
us. " He that flndeth her, fiudeth life, and 
shall obtain salvation from the Lord."* 
For she enricheth them that love her and 
filleth their treasures. 

• Proverbs, viii. 36. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD — DAY OF LIFE. 

" My Beloved to me, and 1 to Him, who feedeth among 
the lilies." — Canticles, ii. 16. 

The joy of our Blessed Lady had been 
great during the nine months in which she 
bore her God in her sacred womb. We 
are now to contemplate another joy. She 
is to bring forth her Beloved, that she may 
know him by sense and feast her eyes upon 
His celestial beauty. As the day of her 
delivery approached, a heavenly messenger 
was sent to St. Joseph to acquaint him with 
the mystery of the incarnation, and to teach 
him his duty towards the lowly virgin and 
her child. Prophecy declared that the 
Messiah should be born in Bethlehem, the 
house of the true Bread. "And thou, 
Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 55 

the thousands of Juda : out of thee shall 
He come forth unto me that is to be the 
ruler in Israel : and His going forth is from 
the beginning, from the days of eternity."* 
The Blessed Virgin was sojourning at 
Nazareth, when the Roman Emperor Caesar 
Augustus was made the instrument in ful- 
filling the designs of divine providence. 
An imperial decree was issued that the 
whole empire should be enrolled. " And 
all went to be enrolled, every one to his 
own city." St. Joseph and the Blessed 
Virgin were both of the family of David, 
and they were obliged to go to Bethlehem, 
the city of David, there to register their 
names. So the very words of prophecy 
were fulfilled, and the birth of the Messiah 
and His descent were registered in the ar- 
chives of the nation. Augustus only meant 
to enumerate his subjects, but among them 
was numbered his God. The holy family 
then began their wonderful journey. We 
can well imagine how full were the hearts 
of Joseph and Mary with heavenly conso- 

*Micheas, v. 2. 



56 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

lation. All the hopes of the patriarchs and 
prophets were now to be realised. The 
true Bread of Life and Hope of Israel was 
with them, and they were to see what seers 
and kings had so long desired. They came 
to the city already crowded with the de- 
scendants of David, and there was no room 
for them in the inn. They sought refuge 
in a cave where the beasts of the field were 
sheltered, and there, at the high hour of 
night, the Holy Mother, by a painless birth, 
and in an ecstacy of joy such as she had not 
before known, brought forth her child. The 
Evangelist has told us something of the 
wonders of that night. The whole creation 
seemed instinct with new life and ready to 
acknowledge its Lord. Shepherds were 
watching upon the hills, and they saw the 
angels who kept vigil, and heard their song : 
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace to men of good will."* " Fear not, 
for behold we bring you good tidings of 
great joy which shall be to all people. For 
this day is born to you a Saviour, who is 

St. Luke, ii. 14. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 51 

4 

Christ the Lord, in the city of David." 
They saw the joy of the heavenly host, which 
in countless numbers filled the skies, and 
they were filled with their faith, and caught 
something of their joy. " They came with 
haste to Bethlehem ; and they found Mary 
and Joseph, and the infant lying in a 
manger."* They paid Him their adora- 
tions, and " returned glorifying and praising 
God for all the things they had heard and 
seen." This is but a brief description of the 
rapture of the angels and the worship of 
the shepherds. But who can describe the 
transports which overwhelmed the soul of 
our Blessed Lady ? She experienced a 
mother's joy heightened to an intensity no 
one else can know, for the little child was 
not only her own flesh and blood, He was 
also her God. Who shall tell of that first 
embrace in which her mother's heart over 
flowed, in which with lowly praise she 
adored her Creator and loved Him with a 
love no saint or angel had ever given Him ? 
She took His tiny hands in hers, the hands 

*St. Luka ii. 16. 



58 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

» 

which held at that moment the weight of the 
world. She pressed Him to her bosom and 
listened for the beating of that divine heart 
filled with all the tenderness of God. She 
looked into His face, and saw the likeness 
of her own features lighted with all the 
radiance of deity. She gazed lovingly and 
adoringly into those eyes which in all their 
infant innocence were looking back her 
love, and she knew they were reading the 
6ecret of her heart and the wealth of affec- 
tion treasured up in her bosom. Well might 
she say, "My Beloved to me and I to 
Him/ 7 for now who should separate her 
from her child ? He was hers, and she was 
to nourish His infant life, to support His 
tender years, to be ever with Him. She 
looked around upon the stable which He 
had chosen for a birth-place, and though she 
felt the indignity He received from an un- 
grateful world, yet to her that poor cave 
was brighter than the gilded palaces of 
kings. It was the gate of Heaven ; it was 
even Heaven itself, for there was the great 
king and His mother, St. Joseph, the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 59 

purest of the patriarchs, and the angels who 
had ever veiled their faces before His throne. 
And Mary rejoiced not only in her own 
great privilege, but also in the effect of this 
wonderful nativity. She saw by faith the 
redemption of the world, and felt the power 
of that new life which was to be the regen- 
eration of man. The light had come into 
the world and the way of Heaven was 
opened to all believers. God became the 
Son of man, that we might become the sons 
of God. " To as many as received Him, to 
them He gave power to become the sons 
of God.' 1 * Because of his birth, we have 
been new-born in baptism, and because He 
lives, we have a spiritual life whose end is 
the vision of God. As often, therefore, as 
we think of the birth of Christ, our thoughts 
should go back to our own regeneration. 
The likeness of His spotless infancy was 
impressed upon us, and if we have lost that 
likeness, it is because our own hands have 
defaced the work of God. We shall never 
find peace until that likeness be restored to 

*St. John, i. 12. 



60 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

us with its meekness, guilelessness, and do- 
cility. Devotion to our Lord's nativity will 
be one great mean of affecting this resto- 
ration. Let us ask the holy Mother to 
obtain for us this grace. And we may be 
sure there is no sinner beyond the reach of 
her prayers. The way of life is opened, 
and no matter how far we have wandered, 
we can find a safe return Let us pray the 
Blessed Virgin, by the joy she experienced 
when first she gazed upon her new-born 
child, to gain for us a complete recovery 
from sin and a new birth unto holiness. 



CHAPTER VIE, 



THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD IN THE 
TEMPLE DAY OF PRAISE. 



"While the King was at his repose, my spikenard sent 
forth the odor thereof." — Cajtticles, i. 2. 



Every day of our Lord's life was a day 
of grace to His mother. She was ever 
learning from Him new lessons, as she saw 
more and more of the counsels of God. Not 
only had the shepherds of Judea 'been to 
adore Him, but sages and kings from the 
far East had been led to His cradle by the 
"star that arose in Jacob." All these 
things gave Mary more and more of the 
spirit of her Son, and she was able to co- 
operate with Him in the great work for 
which He came on earth. We are to con- 
sider to-day how her humility and obedience 
united in a new act of praise to God. 



62 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

Forty days after the birth of her child she 
went to the temple in Jerusalem, there to 
pay the customary offering for her purifica- 
tion, and to present her Son before the 
altar. She had no need of this ceremony, 
for she was not subject to the provisions of 
the law. Her child was miraculously born 
and her virginity remained untouched. 
She was " a garden enclosed, and a foun- 
tain sealed." Nevertheless, she was not 
disposed to take any advantage of her 
privilege, for the impulse of the Holy Spirit 
led her to the temple, to edify the whole 
world by her obedience, and to fulfil the 
prophecy of the old law. She appeared 
then with St. Joseph and the child Jesus 
before the altar, and asked for no distinc- 
tion among the crowd of worshippers. She 
brought the offering of the poor, a pair of 
turtle-doves ; and, sinless among sinners, 
pure among the impure, she knelt with her 
child before His own altar. It is hard for 
us, who are ever over-estimating our gifts 
and privileges, to understand such humility. 
No saint ever practiced such an heroic act 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 63 

of self-abnegation. The Mother of God 
conies with an offering for her purification, 
and bears reverently her God into His own 
temple ! But God left not her great hu- 
mility unrewarded. She was not to kneel 
there surrounded by hosts of adoring angels 
and yet unknown to the world. There 
were some chosen hearts waiting for the 
consolation of Israel, who were to echo the 
salutation of her cousin Elizabeth, and to 
see the salvation of the Lord, the Word 
made flesh. St. Simeon had long wept 
over the desolations of Jerusalem, and long 
had prayed for some token of the promise 
made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To 
him the Holy Ghost had revealed that be- 
fore death should close his eyes he should 
see face to face the Christ of the Lord. 
The same Holy Spirit led him now into the 
temple, to the feet of the Blessed Yirgin. 
His aged eyes were quick to see the pres- 
ence of his God. His heart overflowed 
with joy as he saw the long-expected child, 
and his faith obtained a reward he had 
never hoped for. He was allowed not only 



64 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



to see his God, but to embrace Him in his 
arms. His days were almost spent ; the 
shadows of evening were thick upon him, 
and he was soon going to rest in the bosom 
of the patriarchs. But now the Sun of 
justice shone upon his decline and made 
his rest glorious. Who can tell the ecstacy 
of his bursting heart, when, filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and with the Lord of Life 
pressed to his bosom, he spake his Nunc 
Dimittis: " Now, dost Thou dismiss Thy 
servant, Lord, according to Thy word, in 
peace. Because mine eyes have seen Thy 
salvation, which Thou hast prepared before 
the face of all people, a light to the revela- 
tion of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy 
people, Israel."* Could he ever forget, 
through all eternity, the illumination which 
then filled his soul, or the light which, dis- 
pelling the shadows of the valley of death, 
cast its rays far into the future of his glory ? 
He could now go to the patriarchs and 
prophets to tell them that their deliverer 
was come, and to await His triumphant 

* St Luke, ii. 27—32. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 65 

ascension to open Heaven to all believars. 
It was reward enough for Mary to see 
this public recognition of her Son, and to 
hear the thanksgiving of St. Simeon mingled 
with the praises of Anna, the prophetess, 
he " spake of Him to all who looked 
for the redemption of Israel. Yet she un- 
derstood well the more sublime meaning of 
the great oblation she made. The great 
prophecy of Aggeus found its completion in 
her hands. The second temple, rebuilt after 
the captivity, was unworthy of comparison 
with the first great temple of Solomon. 
Yet it was to be made far more glorious 
by the presence of the Lord of Hosts, who 
in substance of our flesh was to tread its 
pavement and kneel before its altar. " Who 
is left among you/' said the prophet, ' ' that 
saw this house in its first glory ? And how 
do you see it now ? Is it not in compari- 
son to that as nothing in your eyes ? Yet, 
now, take courage, for thus saith the Lord 
of Hosts, yet one little while, and I will 
move the heaven and the earth and the 
dry land. And I will move all nations. 
5 



66 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the desired of all nations shall come, and I 
will fill this house with glory. Great shall 
be the glory of this last house more than of 
the first, saith the Lord of Hosts, and in 
this place will I give peace."* This great 
event, so long predicted, and expected with 
so much fervor by all the faithful, now found 
its fulfilment. The second temple was filled 
with glory. Angels and archangels crowded 
its hallowed precincts to welcome the en- 
trance of the king of glory. Almighty 
God was there, not now in shadow, or by 
sign or symbol, but in very deed and truth, 
the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity, 
the Word made flesh. He came there in 
His Mother's arms, in humble poverty, to 
claim His own, and to receive the worship 
which for ages had gone up to His throne. 
To Him was offered there the adoration of 
all faithful hearts, crowned with the accep- 
table homage of His holy mother's prayer. 
Yet He came not only to take possession 
of His own temple. He came there to 
make His grand oblation as the victim of 

* Aggeus, ii. 4 — 10, 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 67 

salvation, and the Blessed Virgin was the 
priest at this great ceremony. He chose to 
be offered in His infant years, and in His 
mother's arms. Here, then, was an obla- 
tion which recalled all God's promises. All 
the sacrifices of the just, from that of right- 
eous Abel down to the victim whose blood 
had that morning moistened the mercy- 
seat, had derived their value from this great 
oblation. The mysteries of the incarnation 
and of the cross were brought together. 
The reality was to take the place of 
shadows. Around the child Jesus hung 
the darkness of Mount Calvary, proclaim- 
ing Him the Baying Host, before whom 
every knee must bow in heaven and upon 
earth. When, therelore, the pure hands of 
Mary uplifted her child in the temple, she 
offered the great mediator between God 
and man. She made a sacrifice of expia- 
tion, thanksgiving, and praise, such as never 
before had ascended to the heavenly throne. 
It was by His merit that she had been kept 
pure from every defilement of sin. What 
other offering had she but Him who had 



68 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

made all her joy, and who alone could ex- 
press her gratitude ? For all God's mer- 
cies to her soul, she could only give back 
the child He had given her, and in so doing 
she made a sacrifice of infinite value. The 
presentation of our Lord in the temple ap- 
peals forcibly to our hearts. Mary's obla- 
tion, so precious in the sight of Heaven, 
was made not only for herself but for all 
her children. He is our victim of salva- 
tion. He only can interpose between our 
sins and the divine justice. He only can 
worthily thank and praise the Most High 
for the mercies of redemption. Let us en- 
ter into the heart of our holy mother, and 
with her pure desire for God's glory, shelter 
ourselves under the great oblation which 
she made. Let us praise our heavenly 
Father for all the graces He has lavished 
on our souls, but above all, that He has 
provided for us an offering worthy of His 
acceptance, His incarnate Son, our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 



CHAPTER H\ 

THE PROPHECY OF ST. SIMEON — DAY OF FEAR. 

u I arose up to open to my Beloved ; my hands dropped 
with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest 
myrrh. "— Clnticles, v. 5. 

Heretofore we have seen the Blessed 
Virgin in some of the joys which overflowed 
her soul. We are now to contemplate some 
of the sorrows which pierced her heart, and 
like great mountains cast their shadow 
over her sinless life. With the one excep- 
tion of our Lord, no one ever suffered so 
much, and if her joys are far above our 
comprehension, her sorrows still more tower 
to the skies and are full of the mystery 
of divine providence. Of herself she merited 
no pain, for her sinless body and illuminated 
soul were ever pleasing to God. All her 
voes were on account of her maternal rela- 



70 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

tions to the Eternal Word, and because she 
was so taken into the counsels of God that 
she participated in the great agonies of her 
Son. This consideration gives all her 
griefs an additional value in the sight of 
heaven, and constitutes a moving claim to 
our gratitude and love. She came so near 
to her Redeemer that He was her child and 
all His sufferings were hers. He could not 
suffer without her, nor could she be in grief 
without adding a new pang to His sacred 
heart. Her first great sorrow took place 
at a moment of great joy and exultation. 
St. Simeon had adored the child Jesus as 
the hope of Israel, and she had offered Him 
to His eternal Father in the spirit of self- 
sacrifice. The Holy Ghost chose this 
fitting opportunity to publicly reveal the 
consequences of this great oblation. "The 
Light had shone in darkness and the dark- 
ness did not. comprehend it." The aged 
prophet saw in the distance the cross of 
Calvary, and gazed a moment into Mary's 
great depth of woe. He gave back his 
God into the arms of His mother, His fit 



ARK OF THE COVENANf. 71 

resting-place, and full of grief at man's re- 
jection of his deliverer, he prophesied, 
" Behold this child is set for the ruin, and 
for the resurrection of many in Israel, and 
for a sign, which shall be contradicted. 
And thine own soul a sword shall pierce, 
that out of many hearts thoughts may be 
revealed."* Here, then, before the eyes of 
the Holy Mother, came a clear view of the 
sufferings her child was to undergo. The 
prophecy seemed to gather up all her woes 
in one, and as anticipation often gives 
greater pain than the reality, a flood of 
grief overwhelmed her soul. She trembled 
as she gazed into the yawning gulf, but lost 
not for an instant her tranquil trust in God, 
There can be no doubt that she had long 
foreseen the clouds that hung over her won- 
derful life, and knew from the prophets that 
Emmanuel was to be " despised and rejected 
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with infirmity." The Holy Ghost now 
placed the whole picture before her. She 
saw, step by step, His way of the cross, the 

*St. Luke, ii. 3,4, 5. 



72 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ruin and rejection of her own guilty nation, 
and her own sad bereavement. She heard 
the voice of her Beloved ; she arose up 
quickly to open to Hirn, and the mantle of 
His sorrows covered her. " Her hands 
dropped with myrrh and her fingers were 
full of the choicest myrrh.' 7 She touched 
His inconceivable woe, and flesh and heart 
would have failed, but the everlasting arms 
were uuder her, and Grod, who was so near, 
upheld her. Her infant, so dear to her, 
was to be the object of man's most cruel 
rage and persecution. As He began His life 
in a stable, so was He to end it upon a cross. 
She took her treasure home and gathered 
Him safe to her bosom, but there around 
His godlike brow were ever the prints of 
His thorny crown. On His hands and feet 
she ever saw the print of the nails, and 
when His heart was beating against her 
own, she was startled by the thought of the 
centurion's spear. Gladly would she have 
saved Him from all these ignominies by 
ten thousand sacrifices of her life, if that 
were possible. But she had made her great 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 73 

oblation, and she could not recede from it. 
Every day, which made Him more lovely in 
her sight, brought Him nearer to His work 
of pain, and she could never dwell upon 
present joy without the fearful foreboding 
of coming grief. Thus early in the life of 
our Lord did His mother drink of His cup 
of agony. Her first dolor began with His 
infancy, and lasted all His life. But it was 
not only the view of the nail, and the spear, 
and the cross, which overwhelmed her ; she 
had ever before her the thought of His re- 
jection and its consequences. She entered 
into the desolation of His soul at the in- 
gratitude of mankind. So much conde- 
scension, so much love, so much suffering, 
was to be wasted upon an ungrateful world. 
The chosen nation, descendants of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, were to reject the 
Messiah and to crucify their God. His 
blood was to be upon them and their chil- 
dren for ever, and they were to be outcasts 
from the promises of their fathers. So 
many souls were to be redeemed, and so 
few to be finally saved I 



74 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

It is impossible for us to know all the 
sorrow which this prophecy of St. Simeon 
poured upon the pure soul of the Blessed 
Virgin. For she had long enjoyed the vis- 
ion of God, and hence could endure a grief 
which would have been too great for an 
ordinary human life. Yet two considera- 
tions force themselves upon us — the share 
we have had in her suffering, and the con- 
trast between her sorrow and our own. 
The exalted dignity of Mother of God 
brought the Blessed Virgin into the direct 
counsels of God, and gave her an especial 
place in the economy of redemption. As 
suffering was the great means by which the 
Son was to expiate the sins of the world, 
so the mother was forced to take her share 
in the sacrifice. As, then, our sins have 
caused the passion and death of our Lord, 
so have they caused the sorrow of His mo- 
ther. Our sinful thoughts, our transgres- 
sions of word and action, were the arrows 
which pierced the mother's soul while they 
wounded the heart of the Son. We sinners 
have had our share in the passion of the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 75 

sinless Virgin. If then, we receive grace 
to compassionate her woes, we ought to 
lament the work of our own hands, and 
seek through her prayers a perfect purifica- 
tion from the sins by which we made our- 
selves instruments of her agonies. Mother 
of sorrows as she is, her heart is ever open 
to the penitent, and her hands are always 
stretched out to the afflicted. 

And no one, who has lived even a short 
time in this world, has been without his ex- 
perience of sorrow. We are born exiles 
from Paradise our true home, and the vic- 
tims of the penalties of original and actual 
sin. When we suffer, we reap the harvest 
our own hands have sown. And, no mat- 
ter to what afflictions the providence of 
God calls us, we know we can never endure 
what our sins deserve. We too, have be- 
fore us a foreboding of evil, and a fear of 
the divine judgments. But it is conscience 
that plants this thorn in our hearts. The 
Blessed Virgin suffered sinless, and on ac- 
count of her intimate union with our Lord. 
We suffer full of sins, and on account of 



•T6 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

our estrangement from our merciful Re- 
deemer. There is this one consolation to 
the sufferer. If he accept joyfully his cross 
and endure with patience, he is following 
in the steps of Jesus and Mary. Sorrow 
will efface the debt he owes to the divine 
justice. It will wash away the defilement 
of past sin. It will bid the world and sense 
retire, and will open the soul to the opera- 
tions of the Holy Spirit. The passion of 
the Blessed Virgin was an integral part in 
the work of her great sanctification. It 
brought her under the cross, and daily 
nearer and nearer to God. So may our 
afflictions be the means of detaching us 
from things sensible, and fastening our affec- 
tions to Him who alone is good and beau- 
tiful and true. Days of wholesome fear 
are, for us sinners, days of God's most mer- 
ciful visitation. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT DAY OF SELF-SACRI- 
FICE. 

" Flee away, my Beloved, a.nd be like to the roe, or to 
the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices." — 
Gaitticles, viii. 14. 

Our Blessed Lord was rejected by man 
even before His birth, and was born in a 
stab e. He first opened His eyes npon pov- 
erty, and the contempt of the world He had 
created. Yet now we are to see the hand 
of violence raised to insult His sacred per- 
son, and to destroy if possible His infant 
life. Herod, the king of Judea, heard of 
the coming of the Messiah, who was by 
prophecy to be king of the Jews. The 
Magi from the East had been to his court, 
telling of the miracle which had led them 
to seek His cradle. Fearing therefore for 



18 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

his own temporal power, he resolved to find 
out the abode of our Lord, that under the 
pretence of adoring Him, he might take 
His life. As the hour for the sacrifice was 
not come, the child Jesus was forced to flee 
from the persecution, and to be an exile 
from His own country. The angel of the 
Lord appeared to St. Joseph by night, and 
bade him arise and take the young child 
and His mother and fly into Egypt. So 
in the dead of night, without any prepara- 
tion for the journey, the holy family arose 
and escaped from the land of Juda. The 
tender Virgin of only fifteen years takes 
her infant in her arms, and under the guid- 
ance of St. Joseph, begins her long pilgrim- 
age. They were forced to travel through 
deserts and over mountains, exposed to all 
the hardships of the forest, for four hundred 
miles, until they reached the land of bond- 
age, out of which God had by wonderful 
miracles delivered the whole Jewish nation. 
More than once were they almost famished 
for food, and in the terrors of the wilder- 
ness were exposed to the attack of wild 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 79 

beasts, or the more merciless assassin. 
From these dangers the angels of God often 
rescued them. But what a sight, to see 
the Lord of Heaven and His Mother in 
these hardships ! Wearied and exhausted, 
they found no place to lay their heads at 
night, save under the shelter of the forest- 
tree, or on the rocks of the wilderness. 
Jesus slept on Mary's bosom, and when 
Mary sank exhausted to sleep, St. Joseph 
kept vigil around their rude couch. After 
a journey of more than thirty days, they 
reached the land of Egypt, a land of idola- 
try, and found none to welcome the coming 
of the Son of God. There are traditions 
which tell us how the voice of inanimate 
nature proclaimed the presence of its king, 
and how the idols in the temples fell on 
their faces before the true God. Here, in 
a country where the religion of the patri- 
archs was unknown, St. Joseph sought a 
shelter for the Yirgin and her child, and 
here in poverty and distress for seven years 
they abode. They had no need to turn 
their faces towards Jerusalem, as the cap- 



80 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

tive Israelites had done, for the glory of 
the holy city had departed. The pillar of 
fire, the ark of God, the manna from 
Heaven, the glory which abode between 
the Cherubim was exiled in the land of the 
pagan. In estimating the sorrows of Mary, 
we can consider her own physical distress 
during this long journey and still longer 
exile. The bodily fatigue and privation 
were no small trial of her tender frame. 
Yet this is but the smallest part of her 
dolor. It was her mother's heart which 
was made to bleed. The hardships through 
which her child was forced to pass, and the 
ignominy heaped upon Him, broke up the 
very depths of sorrow in her heart. A little 
infant is driven from home at night and 
forced to flee from the sword of a jealous 
king, and the martyred innocents are sent 
up to Heaven as mementoes of His child- 
hood. All Jiidea is armed against Him to 
drive Him into the wilderness, to shut out 
from His eyes the light which He created, 
and to starve him with hunger and thirst. 
And Mary, all the while adoring Him as 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 81 

the God of her salvation, felt every indig- 
nity which He so meekly and uncomplain- 
ingly received. To her the desert with Him 
in her arms was better than all Heaven 
without Him. But the more she knew of 
His love and grace, the more she felt the 
world's ingratitude. And this was but the 
beginning of the melancholy end. The life 
which the sword of Herod could not reach, 
was to expire on the cross. All these 
things and many more than we can know, 
passed before the afflicted soul of our Mo- 
ther of Sorrows. As God alone has a true 
hatred of our sin, so God alone could prop- 
erly estimate the injury thus offered to Him- 
self. But Mary, looking always into His 
perfections, and herself an agent in the 
work of redemption, was able to enter into 
even the divine view of sin, and to grieve 
as no other creature can grieve at man's 
ingratitude. Nor did her grief ever disturb 
for one instant the serenity of her soul. 
Her sorrow was too deep and too divine 
for any outward manifestation. God's 
providence enveloped her. A tranquil, 



82 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

steady grief grew and matured itself in her 
heart, a grief which came from God and 
was all for Him, for she was wrapped in 
the same mantle which covered her child. 
So early began the work of expiation, and 
the new-born infant touched the cross with 
His tiny hands, and the mother was forced 
to cry out : " Flee away, my Beloved, 
and be like to the roe, or to the young hart 
upon the mountains of aromatical spices." 
Go in thy infant years, and be an exile 
from thine own people upon the high moun- 
tains of sorrow, where Thy brethren have 
prepared for Thee wormwood and gall for 
^ thy food, and myrrh for thy sepulchre. In 
contemplating this dolor of the Blessed 
Virgin, we are at once struck with remorse 
at the similarity between our conduct and 
that of the Jews. How often have we been 
favored with the visit of Jesus and Mary, 
and how often have we repulsed their em- 
braces ? They have come to us to detach 
us from earthly things and to sanctify us. 
We have preferred the pleasures of the 
world and the gratification of our own wills, 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 83 

and were unwilling to stay in their com- 
pany. Hence we have driven them from 
our hearts, or by the hand of mortal sin have 
persecuted them beyond our borders. No 
ingratitude of man was ever worse than 
this, for the sinful Jew had never been 
washed in the blood of Calvary, or born 
again of water and the Holy Ghost. We 
have done despite to the Spirit of grace, 
and have banished the Son of God from 
our hearts. Yet now once more the Mother 
comes with her child, knocking at the door 
of our hearts. If we receive her now, the 
past shall be all forgotten, and in the mer- 
cies of this season we shall find strength to 
open our hearts to God, that He may take 
full possession of our souls and abide with 
us forever. And if thus with true hearts 
we seek the Lord and Him alone, we must 
be content 'to take our share in His exile. 
The world will become our enemy, and we 
shall be forced to flee like Jesus and Mary, 
and God will enable us to enter into their 
spirit of self-sacrifice. Over hill and moun- 
tain, in unfrequented places, amid the ter- 



84 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

rors of evil spirits, the path of our perfec- 
tion shall lead us, until the flesh loses its 
charm, and God becomes the supreme rest 
of our souls. Let us never fear. We leave 
the world and its darkness behind us. We 
go with Jesus and Mary, and with them we 
shall find Heaven and eternal peace. Let 
us cherish then the darkness through which 
the unfading light will one day shiue. Let 
us remember that we are pilgrims and ex- 
iles journeying home. For are we not by 
baptism fellow-citizens of the saints, and 
members of the household of God ? By 
this spirit of . self-sacrifice let us judge ever 
of our spiritual state. We draw near to 
God in proportion as we forsake the world 
and the things of sense. When this earth 
becomes in reality a desert to us, through 
longing for God's presence, then in this 
wilderness we shall travel with Jesus and 
Mary and Joseph and all the saints. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE LOSS OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE— DAY OP 
LONELINESS. 

{ ' I opened the bolt of my door to my Beloved : but He 
had turned aside and was gone. My soul melted when Ho 
spoke. I sought Him and found Him not : I called, and He 
did not answer me." — Canticles, y. 6. 

After a sojourn of several years in 
Egypt, the holy family returned to Nazar- 
eth, and Jesus remained in childlike subjec- 
tion to His mother. Who can tell the days 
of grace which were spent in that holy 
house, where the incarnate Lord daily grew 
in wisdom and stature, every hour mani- 
festing through His growing body more and 
more of the power of deity ? This life of 
prayer and praise was varied only by the 
observance of the duties of religion. Every 
year they went up to the temple at Jerusa- 
lem to keep the great paschal festival. And 



86 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

when our Lord was twelve years old, they 
went up, according to the custom of the 
feast, and having fulfilled the days, they 
returned home. The child Jesus, however, 
remained in the temple, and, amid the im- 
mense concourse, his parents, for the first 
hour of their journey, missed Him not, but 
"supposed Him to be in the company 
among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. * 
They therefore journeyed home, and not 
finding Him, were plunged in the deepest 
distress. They retraced their steps to 
Jerusalem, seeking Him everywhere along 
the road, until after three days they found 
Him in the temple, " sitting in the midst of 
the doctors, hearing them and asking them 
questions. And seeing Him they wondered. 
And His mother said to Him, Son, why 
hast Thou done so to us ? Behold, Thy 
father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. 
And Jle said to them, how is it that you 
sought Me? Did you not know that I 
must be about my Father's business ?''* 
This dolor of our Blessed Lady consisted in 

•St. Luke, ii. 41—51. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 8t 

the temporary loss of Jesus, and is full of 
mystery. It was, perhaps, the greatest of 
all Mary's sorrows, while it is the most 
difficult to be understood First of all, there 
could be no grief to her like the loss of her 
child. All else to her was as nothing. She 
had all a mother's love for an only child, 
heightened to a degree of which we can 
form no just conception. United to her 
maternal affection was the supreme adora- 
tion of her soul. He was her child, her 
God, and her all. Suddenly He withdrew 
Himself from her, and with the loss of His 
presence He allowed the curtains of fear 
and gloom to be drawn around the happy 
heart of His mother. He gave her no idea 
of His purpose ; He made no explantions. 
He even withdrew His own inward conso- 
lations, and sent her away without Him to 
a cold and ungrateful world. So the poor 
and desolate mother was bereaved indeed. 
All nature lost its beauty in her eyes. The 
holy house at Xazareth, with so many me- 
mentoes of Him, was only an aggravation of 
her grief. " Tears were her bread day and 



88 ARK OP THE COVENANT. 

night, while it was daily said to her, where 
is thy God ?" In all that she had seen be- 
fore, the ways of providence were clear. In 
this there was an impenetrable darkness, 
and she was plunged into something of that 
deep abjection which led her Son to cry out 
on the cross, " My God, My God, why hast 
Thou forsaken Me." In all her other dolors 
Jesus was with her, even when His torn 
hands and bleeding side broke her heart. 
Here she was alone. Her Beloved " had 
turned aside and was gone. She sought 
Him and found Him not : she called, and 
He did not answer her." Three days of 
this grief were like many years, and left the 
imprint of sorrow upon her beautiful frame. 
There was no food for her but the bread of 
tears, no sleep amid the vigils of a breaking 
heart. And in this gloom which overshad- 
owed her she found a wilderness darker 
than the forests of Egypt. The tempter, 
whose head she had crushed, could only 
wait around the portals of the tabernacle 
which God had sanctified for Himself. Yet 
with all his malignity, he wished to bring 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 89 

new clouds of fear around the home he 
could not enter. He saw the Virgin sor- 
rowing and alone. Her child had deserted 
her. What was the end of this separation ? 
Had the sinless mother given any offence 
to her Beloved ? She could not say she 
had not loved Him, for every fibre of her 
heart was His, and yet perhaps she had not 
served Him as she ought. She was only 
the handmaid of the Lord. She was un- 
worthy to he His mother. Was her life 
only a bright dream of heaven ? Was she 
no more to see that face, or live in His 
smile again ? Had she proved unfaithful 
to her celestial spouse, and had He deserted 
her for ever ? As we know not the joy of 
the Mother of Grod, nor the bliss of her 
daily communion with Jesus, so we cannot 
understand the misery of her loss. St. 
Simeon had told her of the cross, and she 
saw no cross on the height of Calvary. 
The hour was not come, and this was not 
the cross. It was a depth of woe she could 
not have anticipated, for it was like the dis- 
pleasure of her Beloved, and this would 



90 ARK OP THE COVENANT. 

have chilled the current of her life. So the 
sorrowing mother wept, and her sighs went 
up to the throne of her Son. She was going 
through the valley of darkness to seek and 
find a nearness to God which even she had 
not before known. Her child had not desert- 
ed her ; He had hid His face through His 
great love. She was drinking of the torrent 
in the way, that she might lift up her head 
amid the sorrows of Calvary, when all flesh 
should fail, and at last upon God's holy 
mountain for ever. So in firm trust and 
unfailing hope she drank her cup of agony, 
and asked nothing but to see the face of 
her Son in His own good time. From this 
great and mysterious dolor of the Blessed 
Virgin we may learn submission to the ways 
of divine providence, and especially in the 
higher walks of the spiritual life. No one 
can come near our Lord without in some 
way touching His cross. Affliction in some 
form is our natural lot, since we are all 
born in sin, and inheritors of death. Deso- 
lation of heart is not only the consequence 
of our fallen state, but also a most imuortant 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 91 

mean of sanctification. Youth is enthusi- 
astic, and manhood is impetuous, and old 
age is selfish. It is only by affliction and 
self-denial that we learn how deceitful are 
the promises of the world, and how untrue 
is every thing earthly. Religion renders 
this natural experience conducive to the 
purification of our souls, and even makes 
loneliness of heart, which the unregenerate 
soul dreads, a merciful visitation of God. 
And, perhaps, there is no other way of sub- 
duing worldliness, which infests even the 
most chosen hearts, and from whose inva- 
sions no sacred asylum is free. To live for 
the world, even under its most innocent 
aspect, is not the* end of our being To 
regard its maxims, or to be governed by its 
influence, is a grievous infirmity fatal to all 
true spiritual life. The way of the cross is 
in some way the path of every good chris- 
tian. And if God should lead any of us 
into great spiritual darkness, and seem to 
withdraw His presence from us, let us imi- 
tate the faith and patience of Mary. God 
w r oulcl render us more worthy of that bright 



92 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

light for which He reserves us, and in the 
night, which is sure to bring a glorious day, 
we can be content. Constant self-examina- 
tion, and dissatisfaction with our own hearts 
will bring humility and abasement, which 
lead to exaltation. We sinners ought, 
therefore, never to dread loneliness, or even 
gloom, which has in it no element of dis- 
couragement. Beautiful is the night, in 
which at least, God puts all the shadows of 
sense to flight. If with pure hearts we seek 
Him for His own sake, and seek Him 
patiently, knowing that we are unworthy to 
find Him, He will, in His good time, mani- 
fest Himself to us. Let us cherish what- 
ever draws our affections away from things 
earthly. The heart, that is lonely and 
desolate through love of God, will certainly 
be filled with joy, when amid the darkness 
either of our own sins, or of His jealous 
chastisement, Jesus appears to take us to 
His embrace for ever. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE MEETING OF JESUS AND MARY ON THE WAY 
TO THE CROSS — DAY OF GRIEF.- 

u The voice of my Beloved, knocking : Open to me, my 
sister, my love, my dove, my undenUed, for my head i3 fall 
of dew, and my locks of the drops of the night. "—Cant. v. 2. 

After the sorrow we have considered in 
the preceding chapter, our Blessed Lord 
returned home with His mother and was 
subject to her, as a child. There ensued 
from this hour a long period of comparative 
peace and tranquility to the Blessed Virgin. 
The holy house at Nazareth was like an 
outer court of Heaven, where Jesus, Mary, 
and Joseph lived in humility and poverty. 
The Holy Ghost has not revealed the scenes 
that transpired in that happy home. There 
our Lord gave us the example of all heroic 
virtues, submitting to every hardship, and 



94 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

laboring with His own hands to aid St. 
Joseph and to support His mother. Yet 
no one could be near Him and not partake 
of His spirit, and hence from every word, 
and look, and feature, the holy Virgin daily 
drank in godlike lessons of wisdom and 
conformity with her Son. There can be no 
doubt that the approaching passion was 
often the subject of converse, and Mary was 
taught her part in the great drama of blood. 
The meaning of the law and the prophets 
became daily more manifest to her, and the 
ways of divine providence were illuminated. 
The hour of separation approached, and 
then, for the brief space of His ministry, 
she was to be alone, interceding with God, 
and waiting for the great hour when all 
should be consummated. But before the 
hour of loneliness, St. Joseph, the last of 
the patriarchs/ on whom she had so long 
leaned, was taken to his rest. The death 
of this great saint was like his life. He 
expired peacefully, with his head pillowed 
upon the bosom of Jesus, and with Mary 
kneeling at his side. As his life was the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 95 

example of every virtue, so his departure 
was the pattern of a christian death, which 
the Holy Ghost calls a sleep in Jesus. The 
voice of St. John the Baptist now sounded 
in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord, make His paths straight." This 
was the knell which told of her separation, 
and in a few months the Son of God left 
His mother to begin His ministry among 
the Jews. The Virgin was left alone. Yet 
with a mother's anxiety she watched the 
daily report of His wonderful works. She 
heard of His words to the multitude, of His 
miracles, of His daily toil, when He had no 
place to lay His head, save in the wilder- 
ness, where His nights were spent in 
prayer. From His baptism in Jordan, and 
His wonderful fast in the desert, she fol* 
lowed His course to the last and final 
rejection by her own nation. The Jews 
had often sought His life, but they had no 
power, for the hour was not come. But 
now the mother knew that the hour was at 
hand, and she waited in fear and distress 
for the end. He went out in the evening 



96 ARK OP THE COVENANT. 

to the garden of Gethsemane, and there the 
traitor found. Him. One of the disciples 
ran from that scene to tell His mother how 
a fearful agony and a sweat of blood had 
overwhelmed Him. In that weak state 
Judas found opportunity to betray Him 
with a kiss. The mother heard how they 
threw Him on the ground and bound His 
hands, and fastening a heavy rope around 
His waist, dragged Him across the streets 
of Jerusalem to the palace of the high 
priest. She heard of the insults and tor- 
tures of that long night. The morning 
came at last, and she watched for the com- 
ing of the beloved disciple. He had stood 
by our Lord the whole night. He had fol- 
lowed Him to the court of Pilate. That 
unjust judge had pronounced Him innocent, 
and yet had exposed Him to all the fury of 
His enemies. St. John told the sorrowing 
Virgin of that awful and unheard-of scourg- 
ing, which was far too much for any human 
tongue to describe. And then, to crown 
all, Pilate had given order for His cruci- 
fixion. The leaders of the people already 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 97 

had the sentence in their hands, and, in the 
midst of an insulting multitude, they were 
dragging Him to Mount Calvary. The 
Mother of sorrows saw now that her hour 
had come, and she nerved herself for her 
work. She would go out with St. John, 
she would see her Son, she would stand by 
His cross, she would stand by Him to the 
last. No sooner had they emerged from 
the house where she was lodging, than she 
heard the sound of the trumpet proclaim- 
ing Pilate's sentence. From a distance 
came up the shouts of the mob, and the 
cry, " crucify Him, crucify Him," rang in 
her ears. They hastened their footsteps 
until they came m sight of the procession. 
The mob came rushing by with violence, 
but Mary stood firm, unmindful of their im- 
precations, until she should see her Son. 
And ! what a sight for a mother to look 
upon. He had been almost deformed by 
the tortures of the night, the lashes of the 
scourge, and the insults of the multitude. 
His flesh was all torn off His back, and the 
blood was running down to His feet and 
7 



98 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

moistening the pavement at every step 
He was walking to Calvary in His own 
blood. His head wore a crown of thorns, 
which were pressing down into the sub- 
stance of His brain, and on His mangled 
shoulders He bore the two great heavy 
beams of His cross. Around His waist 
they had bound a thick rope, and the shout- 
ing rabble were dragging Him alortg. 
More than once He had fainted under the 
load, but His cruel tormentors had no 
mercy. Here His afflicted mother met 
Him. She called Him by His precious 
name. They had not met for many months. 
He heard her voice and turned to look 
upon her, wiping the clotted blood from 
His eyes, that He might return her com- 
passionate love. Her woe added a new 
pang to His already broken heart. She 
rushed to touch Him, to do something of a 
mother's office to His bleeding wounds. 
But the soldiers rudely seized her, and threw 
her back upon the ground, and the crowd 
pressed on, and the mournful mother was 
forcod to follow at a distance, With 9*. 



ARK OP THE COVENANT. 99 

John she followed in the steps of her Son's 
blood, adoring every moment the great 
price of redemption. 

This dolor of our Blessed Lady is too 
great a depth for us to fathom. No one 
but Jesus then knew the immensity of her 
woe. She suffered in her own heart, she 
suffered in His heart. She felt all His 
wounds, and grief full and fervent filled 
every faculty of her soul. The past, pres- 
ent, and future were blended together. 
Never from her eyes could the image of 
sorrow fade away ; never could she forget 
the look of love which He gave her when 
His eyes were weeping blood. This was 
her beautiful one, chief among ten thousand, 
and now He was deformed more than man, 
and His form than the sons of men. And 
so the Virgin's tears were mingled with the 
blood of Jesus in this great day of expia- 
tion. 

Here, then, is a place for the sinner to 
weep. Countless sins have opened all these 
wounds, and here the ungrateful soul may 
weep at its own work. There is a time 



100 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

when the fountain of tears should be un- 
locked, when deep sorrow may atone for 
deep ingratitude. "When the wounds of Jesus 
are all open, it is time for the sinner's 
wounds to be open too. Tears of contri- 
tion will fertilize the barren heart, and 
give new life to the dying soul. Let us 
weep to-day with our afflicted mother. 
Grief for her sorrows and for our transgres- 
sions will be acceptable incense in the sight 
of Heaven. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

THE DEATH OF JESUS — DAY OF REMORSE. 

" Till the day break, and the shadows retire, I will go to 
the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincence. ,, — 
Cauticles, iv. 6. 

St. John and the Blessed Virgin followed 
the crowd, and made their way to the place 
of crucifixion. The course of the mob was 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 101 

arrested several times by the falling of our 
Lord under the heavy weight of the cross. 
After the seventh fall they were obliged to 
put the cross upon Simon of Cyrene, lest the 
victim should die before their vengeance 
was satiated. The Virgin heard all, and 
saw how her Son was fainting away, but 
she could not get near Him. At last they 
came to the ascent of Calvary, and on its 
brow they paused in the place of skulls, 
where unburied bodies had lain in corrup- 
tion, and where the air was infected with 
noxious vapors. Here in a rock they made 
a place for the upright beam of the cross. 
They laid the wood upon the ground aSd 
made the transverse beam fast, and then 
with violence they threw Jesus down upon 
it. Mary heard Him fall, and knew they 
were laying Him out upon the cross. They 
stretched out His hands, dislocating all the 
joints of His arms, and then with heavy 
mallets they drove the nails through them. 
When His hands were fastened, they drew 
violently down His body, and with one long 
nail driven through both His feet, they 



102 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

completed the crucifixion. Mary heard the 
sound of the mallets, and every blow pierced 
her heart. She would have suffered less 
if the nails had been in her own flesh. The 
victim was now laid out upon His bed of 
pain, and the soldiers gathered a crowd to 
raise the cross. With cries and shouts of 
derision they bore the cross and its victim 
to the hole in the rock, and then with a 
terrible jolt they let it down into its placQ. 
This violent shock opened afresh every 
wound, and caused the saving Blood to 
gush out at every pore. They then took 
two malefactors and crucified them on either 
side, and with jeers and insults they con- 
tinued to deride the meek and suffering 
Jesus. When they were somewhat satiated 
with these tortures, they withdrew a little, 
and the afflicted mother found opportunity 
to draw near the cross. The beloved dis- 
ciple and Magdalen followed her, and they 
were unable to console themselves, still less 
to solace the heart of the Virgin. She 
came close up to our Lord and looked up 
into His face to assure Him of her sympa- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 103 

thy. What a sight for a mother to look 
upon ! The hands and feet of her Beloved 
were nailed, and on three dreadful wounds 
hung the whole weight of His body. The 
bones were all dislocated and almost forcing 
their way through the skin. The crown of 
thorns still pressed into His head, and He 
could not even rest it upon the cross, for at 
every motion some new thorn was forced 
into His brain. There the mother stood 
and trembled as the cross shook and quiv- 
ered with the dying agonies of her Son. 
She could not alleviate His pangs. She 
could not ease his woe. And when through 
tears of blood He looked down to recog- 
nize her, He saw her broken heart and new 
grief overpowered Him. His gentle, His 
beautiful mother, she was suffering with 
Him. She was breaking down under the 
weight of His grief. Mary saw this and 
her eyes were cast down, and from that 
summit of Calvary she looked down upon 
Jerusalem and the world, and uniting her 
heart with her Son's, she offered the great 
sacrifice for man's salvation. Virtue such 



104 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

as no creature had dreamed of, such as no 
saint can conceive, crowned her holy obedi- 
ence. God accepted her great sorrow and 
her perfect resignation. No human heart 
can enter into her woe. We can only de- 
scribe faintly the externals of the scene ; 
we cannot penetrate into the interior of her 
passion. Her sorrow stands out alone and 
unapproachable on the page of human woe. 
She drew near to the heart of her Son, and 
as far as creature could she shared in His 
mysterious agony. When three hours had 
passed and the sua was at high noon, sud- 
denly he veiled his face, and great darkness 
covered the earth. A cold terror seized 
the multitude, and they shrank away with 
fear. The mother was left undisturbed at 
the foot of the cross, as the priest stands in 
silence and solemn awe before the dread 
altar. Four times had our Lord spoken — 
once to pray for the pardon of his murder 
ers, once to forgive the penitent thief, once 
to express his fearful thirst and to fulfil the 
prophecy by taking their cup of vinegar 
and ';■ H ; ):;•:- IviVire the wholtf "universe 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 105 

to recognize His mother, and to bequeath 
her to us in the words, " Son, behold thy 
mother." Now a new darkness comes over 
His soul. He withdraws from Himself the 
consolations of His divinity, and in the 
fearful agony which ensues, cries out with 
a loud voice, " My God, My God, why hast 
Thou forsaken Me P This was the height 
of His passion, and its most mysterious 
depth. The accents of this cry shook the 
feeble frame of Mary, and almost caused her 
death. She trembled like the tree shaken 
by the gale, or the bark shivered by the 
storm, and clung to the cross for support 
in that awful moment. There she stood, 
clasping with both arms that cross which 
was now shaking with the last convulsions 
of her dying Son. The angel of death hov- 
ered near. He heard his Creator say, " Into 
Thy hands, Father, I commend My 
Spirit." His pinions touched the cross. 
One word more, " It is consummated," and 
Jesus was dead — and Mary looked up 
once more, a widowed, childless mother. 
Who should give her comfort now ? The 



106 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

light of Heaven was put out. The world 
had killed its Redeemer. She had lost her 
Son. The earth, which was Heaven with 
Him, was now a dreary desert, and she 
was alone. 

Yet more than martyr, without even the 
consolations of Him, for whom and with 
whom she suffered, she stood firmly beneath 
His cross. The sword of Simeon pierced 
through her heart, and to God she offered 
her pain. It was her part in the world's 
redemption. 

Here, then, let the sinner pause and 
contemplate the cost of his salvation. Let 
him mark well every step in this myste- 
rious passion, and by all its infinite value, 
learn the price of his own soul and the ma- 
lignity of his sins. Our sins of hand, and 
foot, and tongue were the nails which fast- 
ened our Lord to the cross. Our persever- 
ing ingratitude pursued Him even to death 
and oppressed His dying breath. Let us 
give way to remorse for what we have done, 
for what perhaps we are doing now. The 
past cannot be undone. Its burden of sin 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 107 

must be brought to Calvary, and the soul 
defiled must there be washed once more, or 
God can never be our portion. Let us bring 
our guilty selves to the bar of conscience, and 
there find ourselves guilty of the death of 
Christ, and only seek the mercy He pro- 
claimed to the penitent thief. The prayers 
of the Mother of sorrows shall be our 
refuge, if with true hearts we sympathize in 
her grief. And when we approach the 
valley of the shadow of death, Mary will 
be with us, and in death, as a just and 
willing punishment for sin, we shall find the 
entrance to eternal peace. Where Jesus 
and Mary are, there ehall be no darkness, 
for the sting of death is taken away, and 
the narrow portals of the grave have lost 
their gloom. Shall the sinner fear to tread 
in the road which was hallowed by the foot- 
steps of his God ? 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PIERCING OF THE SIDE OF OUR LORD 

DAY OF GRATITUDE. 

11 The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyfuL 
The Most High hath sanctified Hia own tabernaole." — 
Psalm, xlv. 5. 

The Blessed Virgin remained standing 
at the foot of the cross, supported by her 
sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, by the 
Magdalen, and the beloved disciple. There 
they stood in speechless woe, while darkness 
covered the whole earth and all nature 
seemed convulsed with grief. No sooner 
had our Lord spoken His expiring word, 
that at once an earthquake shook the whole 
city, sending terror into every heart and 
opening the graves of many of the elder 
saints. A funeral pall was spread over the 
nation that had shed the blood of its God. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 109 

The centurion who kept guard, when he 
saw all these portents, exclaimed, " truly 
this was the Son of God." Yet no sym- 
pathy came to the afflicted mother. Her 
sorrow was too deep for human consolation. 
She stood riveted to the cross, broken- 
hearted and desolate. At last in the dis- 
tance is heard the sound of a multitude. 
They are groping their way in the darkness, 
to see if their victims are already dead. 
The morrow was the great day of the pass- 
over, and these bodies must be removed 
before the dawn. The two thieves are not 
yet dead ; they are writhing in their last 
agonies. So with Violence they draw near, 
and the soldiers take great mallets to break 
their legs. They soon dispatch these poor 
victims, and coming to the cross of our 
Lord, they find Him already departed. 
There was no need to break His legs, but a 
Roman soldier mounted, comes up with a 
long spear and pierces His heart. At once 
there flows from that sacred heart a mingled 
tide of water and blood. It was a miracu- 
lous torrent gushing from the sacred body 






110 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

full of love for the guilty sons of men, and 
of power to wash away every stain and de- 
filement. St. John, who saw it, bears wit- 
ness to it, as to one of the great facts of 
revelation. " And he that saw it gave tes- 
timony, and he knoweth that his testimony 
is true "* If mothers watch with jealous 
care the remains of their children, lingering 
in fond affection over the last that is left to 
them, much more did Mary burn with love 
and zeal for the honor of that torn and 
mangled body. It was the body of her 
child, dearer to her than her own flesh and 
blood. It was the body of her God, from 
which, in all its ignonmiy, the deity never 
for a moment departed. Ten thousand 
angels were veiling their faces before its 
bleeding wounds, and Mary, purer, dearer 
than all, sent up every moment her su- 
premest adoration. What horror must then 
have seized her to witness this new insult ! 
It was a new and needless aggravation of 
her woe. Yet it was the accomplishment 
of a great prophecy, the manifestation of 

*St. John, xix. 35. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. Ill 

God's great love for sinners, and the open- 
ing of the fountain for sin and uncleanness. 
It was the gushing of the stream of the 
river which makes glad the city of God. 
The sacred heart had overflown with mercy 
for a guilty world, and had broken with 
man's ingratitude. Now by the rude hand 
of violence its pulsations were stilled, and 
yet in death it yearned to give some new 
token of its pity for the fallen. The Ro- 
man spear comes to its aid, and the saving, 
cleansing stream flows out. Here is the 
beginning of all life and salvation. For the 
sinner can never draw nigh to God covered 
with the defilement of his sins. He must 
first be purified, and there is no earthly 
power which can wash him clean. The 
blood of Christ alone can cleanse him. 
This mingled tide of water and blood from 
the side of our Lord can purge the deepest 
stains, and this alone is the sinner's hope. 
The sacred heart was the place of Mary's 
rest, and into its depths of love she looked 
and found consolation. That last wound 
had well-nigh drawn with its bloody spear 



112 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the current of her life. Two hearts were 
lacerated with that fearful blow. Still 
conscious of man's great joy, Mary looks on 
in the future to the choir of saints who 
should wash their robes and make them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. She sees 
the church of God coming like our mother 
Eve, from that open side, and living in its 
fountain of sanctifying grace. The spouse 
of the second Adam is born upon the cross, 
while He is wrapped in His sleep of death. 
And she too looked up with gratitude for 
that crimson flood, though it cost the sacri- 
fice of her own heart 

And now the shades of evening began to 
thicken around Mount Calvary, and the 
holy women gather closer to the cross. 
Joseph of Arimathea, a just man and a 
counsellor, goes to Pilate, and begs in his 
own name and in Mary's behalf, for the 
body of Jesus. Pilate consents and gives 
the order. So another Joseph takes the 
place of the holy spouse of the Virgin, and 
comes with some of the disciples to prepare 
our Lord for burial. With reverence and 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 113 

awe they make ready to take the body from 
the cross. First they place long ladders 
against the cross, and draw out the long 
nails from the hands and feet. Then with 
care they gently bear the body in their 
arms and lift it to the ground. The Mother 
of sorrows waits to receive it, and they place 
the pale and bloodless head upon her bosom. 
She takes once more her Beloved into her 
arms, and the disciples kneel around her to 
adore the Word made flesh. Magdalen 
embraces His feet and again washes them 
with her tears, while the holy Virgin kisses 
each wound and wipes away the clotted 
blood. She closes His eyes and composes 
His sacred features. All was obedient to 
her touch, save the outstretched arms which 
could not be closed, but* remained open to 
welcome to His embrace the sinners for 
whom He died. Here for some moments 
in silence they waited, not daring to intrude 
upon Mary's grief. But what a sight for 
men and angels ! The Mother of God sits 
at the foot of the cross, and holds in her 
arms the body of her dead Son, while tears 



114 AKK OF THE COVENANT. 

stream down from her face, mingling with 
the blood still issuing from His wounds. 
To this sight, before which the angelic 
army is mute with grief, let the sinner turn. 
It is the day of his recovery. Let him 
bring his sorrows and his miseries here. 
Though his sins be like crimson, they shall 
be white as wool. Here is the Jordan in 
which the unclean and leprous may put off 
their defilements, and regain the flesh and 
the heart of an innocent child. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE BURIAL OF JESUS DAY OF ABASEMENT. 

{ ' My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places 
of the wall, show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my 
ears ; for thy voice is sweet and thy face comely.'- — 
Canticles, ii. 14. 

After the holy women kneeling around 
the Mother of sorrows had adored for some 
time the body of Jesus, they begin the 
preparations for His burial. Joseph of 
Arimathea has a new tomb hewn in a 
rock quite near to Calvary, and here he 
has made ready a place for his God. They 
wrap the body in fine linen and anoint it 
with the choicest spices. It is now quite 
dark, and the rabble, tired and alarmed, 
have gone home, and there is no fear of in- 
trusion. The funeral procession starts from 
the mount. Joseph and the disciples bear 
the holy body in their arms ; the beloved 



116 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 



St. John acts his part of son, and supports 
the Virgin, while the holy women follow 
mournfully behind. The childless mother's 
thoughts are full of bitter woe. As she 
walks behind the dead body of her Son, 
memory peoples her mind with a thousand 
sad recollections. She goes down the as- 
cent by which in the morning she came up 
following the track of the precious blood. 
All the events of that long day one by one 
return to her. It seemed as if she had lived 
a century in that one day, so fast had come 
the accelerations of her woe. Now it was over 
and all was still as death. They reach the 
sepulchre and pause a moment before its 
open door. Then gently they lay Jesus to 
His rest upon that bed of stone. They 
kneel around the tomb while Mary goes in 
to take a last look of her child. They have 
hidden her dove in the clefts of the rock, 
but no voice sounds in her ears, and the 
face is cold in death. Yet it is the Resur- 
rection and the Life whom they leave shut 
up in the hollow place of the wall. It is 
the unchangeable nature of God which lies 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. lit 

imprisoned in that sepulchre. They roll 
the stone to the door and prepare to take 
their departure: A band of Roman soldiers 
come to take their place, not indeed to 
adore the Lord of life, but to guard His 
tomb. The holy mother goes to her house 
supported by St. John, for home now on 
earth she had none. Magdalen and the 
holy women retire to a little distance, and 
sit down to watch the sepulchre. Most of 
us have in some way known affliction, and 
can tell by experience of the bitterness of 
bereavement, and how it casts a shadow 
over all earthly things. The very sun in 
heaven loses its brightness and the elas- 
ticity of hope seems to desert us. The long 
nights seem to have no morning, and the 
weary days no evening. Far worse than all 
this was Mary's affliction. She had lost her 
life and light, her child and her God, and 
she. had lost Him by the most cruel and 
ignominous of deaths. Now He was in the 
grave, in the likeness of corruption, and she 
was on earth alone. In this almost endless 
night of sorrow every thing comes back 



118 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

to her. She recalls the transports of Beth- 
lehem when first in the manger she kissed 
His lips a thousand times and called Him 
her own. She remembers the long journey 
into Egypt, and how its hardships wore 
upon His tender frame. She brought be- 
fore her mind all the endearments of the 
holy house at Nazareth, and the numberless 
winning ways of His childhood. She tries 
to picture His looks of affection by which 
so often He had poured into her soul new 
grace and new bliss. And of late she had 
thrown on Him the whole weight of her 
heart, and had kept neither care nor 
anxiety for the future. Then every step of 
the passion comes before her again. She 
sees Him bleeding under the scourge, faint- 
ing under the cross, and looking love to her 
even in the agonies of death. And in the 
vigils of that night she is ever before the 
sepulchre, now lying down by His side on 
His stony bed, now trying in vain to roll 
away the rock from the entrance, or fright- 
ened away by the tramp of the Roman 
soldier. Poor mother, there is no one who 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 119 

can sympathize with her woe, and no one 
but God could read the utter desolation of 
her heart. That tomb is her burial place 
also, and in it she is shut up, and by it she 
is cut off from all the things of earth. She 
shall indeed rise with her Son to new life 
and glory, but these are the days of her 
burial. He who would rise with Christ 
must first die with Him and be buried with 
Him. The Blessed Virgin was the first to 
follow the example of her Son, for from 
Him she was never separated. As she re- 
vealed to St. Bridget, the spear that pierced 
His heart pierced hers also, the tomb that 
enclosed His body was also her resting- 
place. There was no need that she should 
die to the things of sense ; they had never 
found entrance in her heart. There was 
no need that she should be buried to the 
world, for she had never known the world 
or felt even one of its attractions. There 
was no purgative life for her. Yet in the 
high and majestic union of her soul with 
God there were continually new heights and 
ever deeper depths. And her share in the 



120 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

cross and passion was one of the fruits of 
this union. The sinner however, as he 
contemplates Mary's grief, and beholds his 
Lord sleeping in the embrace of death, may 
find many lessons leading him to compunc- 
tion and self-abasement. That cold tomb 
encloses the hearts both of Jesus and Mary. 
Let the sinner kneel before it, and learn 
how to die and how to await resurrection. 
For soon we must say to corruption, thou 
art my mother, and to the worm, thou art 
my sister, and soon we must sleep in the 
narrow grave, not in the likeness, but in 
the reality $f corruption. Shall our long 
sleep be like the sleep of Jesus ? Shall our 
tomb be like His ? If such shall be our 
peaceful rest, then must we die with Christ 
to all things sensible, even to the desires of 
our own hearts. Then in humility and self- 
abnegation must we cut every chain that 
binds us to the world, and bid the stony 
door of His sepulchre shut out all else but 
Him and our own soul. Our world of faith 
shall be there where He is, and living on 
earth, we shall be indeed strangers aod 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 121 

pilgrims, citizens of a better country. 
blessed burial, hope of the sinner, and ear- 
nest of everlasting union with God ! 
blessed sepulchre, where no deceitful shadow 
of sense, no empty vision of the world can 
disturb the peaceful rest of the soul 1 Who 
would not seek thy hallowed gloom, and in it 
find alone the only good and the only true ? 
But if we aspire to such likeness to Jesus 
and His Mother, we shall need great cour- 
age and great fidelity to grace. 'There is 
scarcely any human heart in which in some 
way the world does not reign. Worldliness 
is the great sin of our day, a#d like a de- 
vouring worm it eats at the root of every 
fair tree in the garden of God. We are 
ever striving to accomplish by human means 
what the divine providence would bring to 
pass in His own way. We ever turn out 
of the path of our perfection to try some 
easier way which presents some apparent 
gain ; and in the perplexities of life, or in 
the blessed visitations of divine love, we 
turn to the creature and turn away from 
the Creator. The mvstical death is not to 



122 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

be found except in the steep and narrow 
way, and the sepulchre of Jesus will not re- 
ceive us till the world and its maxims, and 
its sensuality are utterly banished from our 
hearts. For in that narrow tomb no earthly 
thought can enter, and no heart can sleep 
there whose every pulsation is not for Jesus 
and Mary. Let us abase ourselves for our 
past neglect ! Have we ever counted the 
cost, when for any earthly good we are 
sacrificing the favor of God, or throwing 
away even one grace which would lead us 
heavenward? Why have things sensible 
the power t<*dim the eye of faith, or to at- 
tract the soul that God would prepare for 
His own endless love and ravishing beauty ? 
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The 
cross of Christ is the measure of the world. 
The voiceless sepulchre is the - mighty 
preacher of the nothingness of human 
promises. Why not seek that safe shelter 
from every storm and tempest, that shield 
from the defiling touch of everything 
earthly? The Mother of sorrows will be 
our teacher, and from her example we shall 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 123 

learn the way of self-abasement. She will 
be our guide through whatever paths God 
may lead us, and with her we cannot stray. 
And we shall make progress in our sancti- 
fication only in proportion as we walk in 
her footsteps, and conform our lives to the 
model she has given us. It will be a con- 
solation to her afflicted heart to guide us to 
a perfect union with her Son, for whom she 
lived and suffered. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD DAY OP 

ILLUMINATION. 

M The winter 13 now past, the rain is over and gone, the 
flowers have appeared, the time of pruning is come, the 
voice of the turtle is heard in our land."— Canticles, ii. 
11—12. 

They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
After a time of sorrow patiently endured 
for God, there comes a time of consolation 



124 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and reward. The dolors of the Blessed 
Virgin were only her steps to endless glory 
when, after having suffered with Christ, she 
received power to arise and reign with Him. 
Following, therefore, the course of her holy 
life, we are to consider some of her glories, 
by which, before the whole universe, she 
obtained a reward for her virtues. The 
days of our Lord's passion were over. His 
sacred body rested in the sepulchre, guard- 
ed by Roman soldiers. His holy soul was 
in the chamber of the fathers, preaching 
to the spirits in prison, and preparing the 
saints of the old law for their triumphant 
entry into Heaven. A night, and a day, 
and a night intervened, and Mary kept 
watch for the accomplishment of His 
promise. Sleep never visited her eyes. 
She was waiting in anxious suspense for 
the third day. The great feast of the 
passover had lost its significance for her, 
for now the true paschal lamb had been 
sacrificed, and His flesh had been given for 
the life of the world. Figures and shadows 
had given place to the reality. The first 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 125 

morning wateh of the third day found her 
on her way to the sepulchre. The whole 
city was buried in sleep, and even the holy 
women had not arisen, as they were wait- 
ing for the beginning of the dawn. She 
went alone in the darkness to anticipate 
the hour and to welcome her Son at His 
first rising. Her way led her over Mount 
Calvary. The crosses were still standing, 
•and before them she knelt to adore the 
saving wood, still red with the blood of her 
Son. Then she goes towards the sepulchre, 
and patiently waits for the appointed hour. 
The guards are walking before the tomb, 
and Pilate's seal is still unbroken. All 
around her are the open graves which the 
earthquake at the death of Jesus had un- 
closed. These were the graves of many of 
the elder saints, for tradition tells us that 
our first father, Adam, and many of the 
patriarchs, were buried on this holy moun- 
tain. Here therefore, watched the Yirgin 
Mother, recalling the past, meditating upon 
the plan of redemption, and tracing its 
course from man's fall through the prom- 



126 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ises made to the fathers, and the revelations 
given to the prophets. She was the queen 
of all those just souls who were now to 
find their perfection. While she is thus 
contemplating the adorable ways of God, 
suddenly the faintest tinge of light touches 
the eastern horizon, and instantly there is 
heard the rumbling of an earthquake. The 
whole city is shaken, and the rock is rolled 
away from the door of the sepulchre . The 
guards are alarmed, and look on with anx- 
ious fear, when suddenly through the open 
door our Lord appears surrounded with 
hosts of adoring angels. The soldiers fall 
upon their faces and become like dead men, 
and the heavenly army takes their place as 
keepers of the sepulchre. Jesus has put off 
the garments of corruption, and is clothed 
with incorruption. He has put off the igno- 
miny of death, and has put on the vesture 
of eternal glory. His face is more dazzling 
than the sun, and His form more glistening 
than the brightest gems of earth. Mary 
looks up for Her share in this glory, and 
behold He runs to meet her, and once more 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 127 

folds her in His embrace. She looks once 
more upon His face, and never did His in- 
fant beauty seem so ravishing. She seeks 
for the glow of health, and behold the 
precious Blood flows again in its wonted 
channels, and the vigor of undying youth 
gleams in all His features. She looks at 
His wounds, and they are open still, but 
celestial light is beaming from them. A 
blissful ecstacy comes over her, and she 
seems to be in Heaven listening to the song 
of cherubim and seraphim, and hearing 
from her Son's lips the triumph of the res- 
urrection. While thus she rejoices in the 
glory of Jesus, behold from the open graves 
ascend the bodies of them that slept in 
faith. They draw near the second Adam, 
and kneel at His feet. Prophets and kings 
now see Him whom they so long desired, 
and bear witness to the power of His vic- 
tory over death. The soul of Mary is over- 
whelmed with light, and all the ways of 
redemption are now unveiled before her. 
Soon the bright vision vanishes, and Jesus 
guides His mother to her home at the house 



128 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

of St. John. He has yet to appear to 
Magdalen and the holy women, to Peter 
and the Apostles, who were to be witnesses 
of His resurrection. Yet who could tell 
the Virgin's part in the glory of that day ! 
She was buried with her Son, and now she 
shares in His great victory. She rejoices 
to see the sacred Humanity clothed with 
its own proper glory, and to see the reward 
for all its ignominy. He who was so marred 
by the passion as to lose all form and come- 
liness, has now recovered his likeness to 
her, and shines with all the beauty of 
Heaven. This is her consolation, but this 
is not the beginning of her joy. She looks 
upon death and the grave, and sees that 
their terrors are gone. Beside the sepul- 
chre lies the broken iron sceptre, and the 
crown of the enemy of man is shivered to 
pieces. She sees the resurrection of the 
just, in the likeness and in the glory of her 
Son. She looks upon the spiritual resur- 
rection of souls, and sees how the dead in 
sin are to be quickened to new life by the 
power of this day. That open sepulchre is 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 129 

to her the entrance of Heaven, and the 
light which beams from it shines up to the 
gates of the celestial city. There is no 
more night for her. Her whole soul is 
illumined, and even she, in her perfection, 
makes a grand ascension towards God, and 
with her rising Son, draws nearer to the 
centre of all light and grace and bliss. The 
wounded heart is made whole, and the 
brok$i spirit is healed. 

If we would participate in Mary's joy, 
we must, like her, wait upon the Lord, and 
like her be faithful in the day of trial. God 
waits to pour upon us His grace, and to 
fill us with His Spirit. If we would be 
illumined in every part, so that from us all 
darkness* should flee away, then must we 
yield a ready obedience to that Spirit while 
He seeks to cast out of our souls all the 
dross of the old Adam, and to animate us 
with the power of the Resurrection and the 
Life. And if we would rise with Christ, 
then the attachments of earth must lose 
their power, and the spirit must be free to 
mount upward in the way which He has 
9 



130 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

opened for us. Let us pray to the glori- 
ous mother to give us a part in the light of 
the Resurrection. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

<JF J 



THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD DAY TO JOT. 

"Whither is thy Beloved gone, thou most heautiful 
among women, whither is thy Beloved turned aside, and 
we will seek Him with thee."— Canticles, v., 17. 

The forty days which intervened between 
the resurrection and our Lord's ascension 
were days of light and grace to the Blessed 
Yirgin. He was with His apostles, teach- 
ing them the things which pertained to the 
kingdom of God, and laying the founda- 
tions of His church. The holy mother was 
constantly at His side, and to her He 
opened the mysteries of revelation. If com- 
munion with Him had been full of bliss in 
the days of childhood and growing man- 



ARK OF THE COVENASTT. 131 

hood, much more was it blissful now when 
man's redemption was purchased and He 
had put on the body of glory. Who can 
ever know, save Jesus and Mary, the hours 
of joy which during these forty days were 
her blessed reward for labor and suffering ? 
Earth seemed to have receded in the far . 
distance, and Heaven to have opened itself 
upon her transported soul. But labor was 
not over. The Yirgin had still her work 
to do, as her hand was to be employed in 
the foundation of the church, and she was 
to enter upon her dominion as queen of the 
apostles. Our blessed Lord taught His 
mother the whole of His will, and guided 
her in the office to which she was appointed. 
He opened His whole heart to her, and left 
her for a few years on earth to be the sup- 
port of His disciples. She was to be His 
representative in the perplexities of the in- 
fant church. 

At last the time came when He was to 
leave the world and to ascend to His 
Father. Mary was to witness the glory 
and to participate in its blessedness. When 



132 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the morning came He led her, accompa- 
nied by the apostles and many of His dis- 
ciples, to the mount of Olives. There 
upon its summit He stood to take a last 
view of Jerusalem, and to bid farewell to 
His children. He knew how they would 
need His support, and how all should be 
baptized in His baptism of blood. He 
gave them his parting counsels and lifted 
up His hands to bless them. Suddenly a 
new radiance shone from all His features, 
a cloud of dazzling light enveloped Him, 
and swiftly, gently He was borne up out of 
their sight. His last look was upon His 
mother to cheer her in her bereavement 
and to nerve her for the work before her. 
He seemed to say, " Farewell dear Mother 
for a brief season only, I am going to pre- 
pare a bright throne for thee, and soon 
will send my angels to take thee, when 
thou like Me shalt be assumed in glory .? 
Mary took the meaning of His look and 
gazed longingly after Him, till the bright 
clouds which curtained His ascent gath- 
ered into one, and naught was left but the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 133 

majestic glories of the heavens, which 
caught the radiance of His departing form, 
and reflected back in purple, azure and 
gold the last beams of the light of the Son 
of Man. The Mother of God was again 
alone. For some moments the Apostles 
lingered gazing into heaven until the 
voices of angels reassured them of their 
master's farewell, and then they knelt 
around the stone on which were still im- 
printed the marks of His sacred feet. Then 
under the guidance of Mary they went 
back to the temple and began their great 
novena of prayer. — There are many con- 
siderations which go to make up the joy 
and glory of the Blessed Virgin in the tri- 
umphant ascension of her Son. It was in- 
deed a temporary loss, and a long separa- 
tion from the sight of Him whose face con- 
stituted her bliss. She was lor some long 
years to be on earth alone, while He was 
to be enthroned in heaven. Her pilgrimage 
was not over and the dreary desert was 
still her portion. Yet He was now glori- 
fied and His sacred humanity had received 



134 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

its reward. His exaltation was her's also. 
Her heart now bound closer than ever to 
His, found rest with Him on the everlast* 
ing mountain. The way to heaven was 
opened for the soul and body of redeemed 
and regenerate man, And her child, her 
own flesh and blood, was crowned forever 
amid the burning glories of the eternal 
Trinity. Her child was sitting on the 
throne of God, His co-equal and consub* 
stantial word. In Him therefore she was 
elevated and with Him she was glorified. 
He had ascended for the very purpose of 
drawing the human heart after Him, and 
she more than all others had merited the 
grace of this day. And as she stood look- 
ing after Him, her whole being went with 
Him, and from the dizzy hight of sanctity 
which she had reached, all human things 
were out of sight. She seemed to invite 
the salutation of the Canticles, " Whither O 
thou most beautiful among wom^n, has thy 
Beloved gone, whither is thy Beloved 
turned aside, and we will seek Him with 
thee V And Mary was willing that her 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 135 

Beloved should be gone, in order that she 
might induce us to seek Him with her. 
We have a right to participate in her joy, 
for the nature which ascended, and which 
sits at God's right hand, is our nature also. 
We have a part in this great exaltation. 
But then with mind and heart we must seek 
Him who is gone before us, and be citizens 
in truth of that better land to which He 
invites us ( * Who shall as; end into the 
mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand 
in His holy place ? The innocent in hands 
and clean of heart- "* The true way there- 
fore to follow Christ, is to purify our hands 
and hearts from every stain of sin, and 
every affection to sin. We need to set al- 
ways before our faces the sight of our as- 
cended Lord, and to turn all our thoughts 
and affections to Him. We must open our 
souls to His attractions and let him draw 
us away from the things of time and sense. 
Thus we may make a true ascension every 
day, as we approach nearer to the divine 
model. This is the end of the grace of re- 

* Psalm, xxiii. 3--1. 



136 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

generation. It takes us away from our 
human generation and our human ties, and 
unites us to God by a truer bond. Mary 
was the mother of our Lord, and we are 
His children by a real participation in His 
nature. And as it is only by slow steps 
that this great ascension is accomplished, 
so we ought to ask for the aid of the 
Blessed Virgin that we may follow in the 
narrow way. Many make great progress 
and mount high upon the spiritual ladder, 
only to fall more fearfully by some great 
infidelity to God. Many lose the fruit of 
all their labors, when a little more perse- 
verance would have gained for them an 
eternal crown. The heavens above us will 
not be always like those which curtained 
our Lord's ascent. We must go on in 
darkness as well as in light, and seek for 
none to know our hearts but God, nor ask 
for consolation from creatures. The as- 
cending soul can never find suc£ consola- 
tion. It is only a mockery of its great 
wants. He who reads our hearts and 
knows their sincerity will be our support, 



AKK OF THE COVENANT. 137 

and even when clouds and darkness are 
round about Him, He is only bringing 
us closer to Himself, and preparing us for 
His infinite purity. He will never be sepa- 
rated from the soul that truly seeks Him. 



CHAPTER IVHL 

THE COMING OF THE HOLY GHOST DAY OF 

PEACE. 

'" The fountain of gardens, the well of living waters which 
run with a strong stream from Libanus. Arise, north 
wind, and come. south wind, blow through my garden, 
and let the aromaiical spices thereof flow." — Cant. iv. 15-16. 

When our Lord had gone into heaven 
the apostles returned to Jerusalem, and 
spent their time at the temple in -prayer. 
Mary returned with them, and under her 
guidance they passed their great novena. 
Ten days were given them to wait for the 
promise of the Holy Ghost. Mary inter- 
ceded for them and with them that our 



138 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

Lord would be mindful of His word, and 
send the powerful Paraclete upon them, who 
should more than make up for the loss of 
His visible presence. " It is expedient for 
you that I go away, said He, for if I go 
not away the Paraclete will not come to 
you ; but if I depart I will send Him unto 
you." At Mary's feet they learned some- 
thing of the meaning of this promise, and 
were daily in expectation of the great gift 
of the Father. During this short time the 
Mother of God presided in their councils, 
the number of the twelve apostles was 
filled up, and the foundations of the church 
were securely laid. When the tenth day 
had come they were assembled together in 
the temple, waiting for the completion of 
our Lord's promise. The great festival 
had called a vast multitude of Jews and 
proselytes from all Judea and the sur- 
rounding country. Great numbers were 
flocking to the temple from all parts of the 
city. The Mother of God and the twelve 
apostles were together in a small upper 
room, unknown and unnoticed amid the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 139 

great throng of worshippers. Suddenly 
there was a sound as of a rushing, mighty 
wind. The temple trembled on its founda- 
tions. The Holy Ghost came down with 
might and power upon the disciples. First 
of all He crowned with light the holy Vir- 
gin, who was His own spouse, and then 
rested upon the apostles. Their faces were 
kindled with His glory, their whole bodies 
were lighted up with a heavenly radiance, 
and over their heads were cloven tongues 
of fire. The new creation had taken place. 
There was chaos no more in the moral 
world. The Spirit of God brooded upon 
the shapeless waters, and out of them came 
forth the church in life and beauty. The 
divisions of Babel were broken down, and 
the fold of Christ was opened to all the 
nations of the earth. The twelve were 
overwhelmed wiih the greatness of their 
vocation, as they saw the outlines of the 
kingdom over which they were to reign. 
Their eyes were opened, and the truths their 
Master had taught them were all made 
clear. Tbey opened their mouths, and the 



140 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

gospel of Christ came full and fervent from 
their lips. The multitude crowded around 
to hear their words, and in every language 
they spake of the way of salvation through 
Christ. St. Peter began his work, and on 
that day more than three thousand were 
added to the flock. It was a day more 
wonderful than the day of the first creation, 
even as the spiritual life is more wonderful 
than the natural life. The Mother of God 
was glorified with these triumphs of the 
Holy Ghost. She received His consolations 
in her heart and she rejoiced at the new 
victories of her Son: To herself it was a 
day of peace. The blessed Paraclete, who 
had ever filled her heart and consecrated 
her whole being, now came to open to her 
new and new mysteries in the economy of 
salvation. She began to understand better 
than ever her own place in the work of re- 
demption. The path through which she 
had come was illumined with the light of 
God's providence. She saw the full mean- 
ing of every word and work and look of her 
Son. All His labors and sorrows came back 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 141 

to her. The days of His blessed resurrec- 
tion were before her mind, and every word 
which fell from His glorified lips seemed 
pregnant with wonderful power. She had 
ever bent adoringly before Him and had 
loved Him with the fullness of her heart. 
Now a new tenderness came over her, and 
she melted in an ecstacy of affection towards 
Him who was bone of her bone, and flesh 
of her flesh. A deep and quiet joy sank 
down to the depths of her spirit, and she 
could only repeat the words of her Magnifi- 
cat: " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and 
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." 
God had chosen her out of all the tribes of 
earth to be His mother. She had borne 
Him in her womb, had nourished Him at 
her breast, had been with Him in all His 
sorrows, had seen Him ascend into heaven. 
He was her own child. His interests were 
her's, and His glory was her's also. Her 
raptures on this day were the embraces of 
her own celestial spouse, and a peace pass- 
ing all understanding filled every faculty of 
her spirit. God alone can tell what new 



142 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

graces were poured into her heart, for the 
dizzy height of sanctity on which she stood 
is far beyond the sight of sinners like us. 
" The well of living waters ran with a 
strong stream from Libanus." The Lord 
came into His own garden, and the aro- 
niatical spices thereof exhaled their per- 
fume. But Mary also rejoiced at the won- 
derful works of the new creation. The 
church of God was born on this day, and 
the great energies of the sacraments began 
to put forth their strength, In Jerusalem 
was her rest, and in Zion her home. She 
was to exercise her office of Mother to all 
the spiritual children of her Son, and the 
nations were to be gathered to her feet. 
The triumphs of the church were her joy on 
this day, and the fruits of faith, which were 
to spring forth within it, were the consola- 
tion of her maternal heart. The Holy 
Ghost, who had made heaven so near to 
her, was now to dwell on earth, and to 
make its sterile plains a garden for the 
Lord of Hosts. In remembrance of this 
glory of the Blessed Virgin, we ought to 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 143 

lift up our hearts to a participation in her 
joy. We are her children, and her inter- 
ests ought to be ours. Her work in our 
souls is our sanctification. She has no other 
care for us, and no temporal interests can 
divert her from this great work. If we have 
been obedient to the inspirations of the 
Holy Spirit we can share in her heavenly 
peace, Infidelity to God disturbs the tran- 
quility of our souls, and makes us to wander 
in shadows and darkness. We are neither 
cheerful nor peaceful, only because we are 
continually hindering the work of grace. 
The Holy Ghost struggles against our wills, 
and cannot accomplish our sanctification. 
Mortal sin grieves the Comforter and drives 
Him away. Yenial sin wounds Him, pre- 
vents the operation of His grace, and clogs 
the whole spiritual life. The flesh rises up 
with its stimulus of concupiscence, and pas- 
sions unsubdued distract and divide our 
affections. We are anxious and fretful, only 
because the Spirit of peace is not our guide. 
Can we never find rest from warfare, and 
freedom from the persecutions of self-love ? 



144 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

" wretched men that we are, who shall 
deliver us from this body of death ?" Yes, 
rest will come when we have obtained per- 
fect victory over passion. Peace will be 
ours when we yield our whole being to the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are tem- 
ples of the Holy Ghost, and the life of God 
is in us. That life is power by which sin 
and death may be utterly subdued. Let us 
only be obedient to God, and the divine life 
will produce its blessed fruits of peace. 
The embraces of the Paraclete will be an an- 
ticipation of heaven, and an imitation of 
the raptures of our holy Mother, whose un- 
clouded eyes were always fixed upon the 
celestial glory And as we have been so 
often unfaithful, let us trust to the interces- 
sion of Mary to bring back to us the light 
of the Holy Spirit. Her prayers will be 
all-powerful with her spouse. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DEATH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN — DAT OF 
VICTORY. 

11 Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with 
apples, because I languish with love." — Ca>ticles, ii. 5. 

It was the will of God that the Blessed 
Virgin should linger on earth for a few 
years after the ascension of her Son. 
She had her part to perform in the founda- 
tion of the church, and she became the 
great consolation of the apostles in the 
absence of their Master. She who was 
wholly a sacrifice to God was willing to 
bear her exile when the interests of her Son 
required her presence on earth. Yet what 
a lonely exile was hers ! Sometimes the 
saints have been raised above the attrac- 
tion of earthly things to ardently long for 
heaven. They have found the world a bar 
10 



146 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

ren desert, and the days of their pilgrimage 
long and wearisome. As the thirsty hart 
seeketh the stream of water, so their souls 
have been athirst for God. But what was 
their loneliness compared to that of the 
Mother of our Lord ! Earth had long since 
vanished out of her sight. No human thing 
had any hold upon her. She was wholly 
absorbed in the love of her Son, and while 
He was with her she seemed to be in heaven 
also. Now he had left her, and the heart 
of the mother yearned unceasingly for her 
child. Her heart responded to the attrac- 
tions of His heart, and its pulsations were 
still in unison with His; She could see 
His face no more. She could receive Him 
iu the Blessed Eucharist, and be in spiritual 
communion with Him every moment, but 
His visible presence was no longer hers. 
The most dreary desert is not so drear to 
the exhausted traveler as was this world to 
her when Jesus had gone from it. In His 
Father's house were many mansions. He 
had gone to prepare a place for His chil- 
dren, and she knew of that bright throne 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 14*1 

which He was making ready for her. Yet 
the love He had shown her, and which He 
still manifested to her, only made her yearn 
the more for His presence. When should 
she be near Him again ? When should 
she look into His face, and live in the light 
of His eyes ? When should she once more 
embrace Him ? His love was then her life, 
and as that love was ever increasing, it was 
one day to cause her death. Mary, being 
conceived without sin, had no part in the 
original curse. She was exempt from the 
pains and infirmities of mortality. The 
hand of disease never touched her beautiful 
form. She never grew old. She grew to 
perfect womanhood, and then she grew no 
more. Decay never laid his blighting finger 
upon her. She never suffered, except as 
she suffered for and with her Son. His 
passion had left its lines of anguish upon 
her fair brow, but none of the infirmities of 
man's fall came near her. Now she was to 
die, but not as ordinary mortals die. There 
was to be no wasting of nature, no gradual 
descent to the grave. The kiug of terrors 



148 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

had no power over her. She was to die 
only to pass out of this world to her Son, 
only to bless with her hallowed feet the 
valley of the shadow of death. No cold- 
ness, no paleness, no sign of dissolution was 
to precede her hour of victory. She was 
to languish of love and die in an ecstacy of 
its excess. So when the time drew near, 
she sent for the apostles and gave them her 
last benediction. She promised to be their 
mother when she was exalted in heaven. 
The brightest angels crowded around her, 
and strains of celestial melody were heard. 
The watchers who sang " Gloria in Excels^ 
were there to sing a new song, and heaven 
came down to welcome the holiest and purest 
of creatures. Sweetness such as she had 
never known overwhelmed her. She heard 
the voice of her child bidding her to come 
to His arms, and repeating again her Mag- 
nificat : " My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
Saviour, " she sank away to her eternal rest, 
and Jesus and Mary were forever united. 
The humble Yirgin had found her hour of 



ARK OF THE ' COVENANT. 149 

victory, and her holy soul was received into 
the embraces of the Blessed Trinity. As 
perfection and completeness are the marks 
of all God's works, so did He finish the 
work which He had begun. We give Him 
thanks for His own great glory, and we 
praise Him for the love He has shown to His 
mother, for it is His own perfection. The 
Blessed Yirgin lay now like one entranced. 
The soul had left the body, but corruption 
could not invade the ark of God, or touch 
the flesh of which Jesus was born. The 
odor of heaven filled her humble chamber. 
The choicest spices of paradise were giving 
out their fragrance. The apostles knelt, 
overcome with their nearness to heaven, 
and filled with the grace which her dying 
prayer had sent into their hearts. Never 
could they forget that scene. It nerved 
them for their baptism of blood. They 
knew that Jesus was love, but now they had 
seen with their eyes, and heard with their 
ears. What a victory was Mary's now ! 
She had lived her appointed time, had lived 
for God aloue. Her labors were all accom- 



150 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

plished. She had served her Creator as no 
creature had served Him before. She had 
no sorrow and no regret, for she had never 
for a moment been unfaithful to. grace. 
Now in her perfection and completeness she 
goes to Him who made her, goes to be 
queen of all the heavenly host, and mother 
of all the redeemed. So is she an example 
for us. We have our labors to discharge 
in the day of probation. Our appointed 
time must soon come. We cannot die as 
Mary did, for we are sinners. Disease and 
decay must do their work upon us, and our 
bodily strength must be wasted by anguish 
and pain. , This is the penance we deserve 
for the sins committed in the body. Cor- 
ruption will make us its prey, and our sin- 
ful dust must return to the dust of which 
it came. This will be our only way of 
purification. But the likeness of Mary's 
death may still be ours, if like her we seek 
for God alone, and thirst for union with 
Him. Could we by penance and prayer 
pay our debt to the divine justice, then the 
hour of death would be the hour of our 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 151 

triumph. If by constant fidelity to the 
Holy Spirit we could break the chains 
which bind to earth, and master the tyranny 
of self-love, then what power would the ad- 
versary have to torment us in that hour ? 
If the soul were really united to God and 
wholly purified, the last agony would be 
our entrance upon eternal bliss. And why 
is not this possible to us ? Grace is not 
wanting, and all we need is a firm resolve 
and a steady will. Let the death of Mary 
by its very loveliness attract us to seek to 
die to all the things of sense, and above all 
to ourselves. The mystical death must 
precede the natural death. We must be 
fast locked in the embrace of Jesus, and 
then no harm can betide us, for everything 
must bring us nearer to God. Let not past 
sin nor present infidelity discourage us. He 
who died for us loves us wih a love far ex- 
ceeding our comprehension. He will heal 
the wounds of the past and help us up the 
steep ascent. Mary's death will be our en- 
couragement in the last contest ; by her 
example and her prayers we shall be victors 



152 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

over every foe. A good death will be our 
last and crowning triumph. It will be no 
trial to us to go where the feet of Jesus and 
Mary have trod, for there is no darkness 
where the light of their presence has made 
the grave the door of entrance to heaven, 
the gate to a blessed immortality. As 
Mary is our consoler in every vicissitude of 
life, so will she be our protector in death. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 

DAY OF UNION. 

" Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, 
fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set 
in array?" "Who is this that cometh up from the desert, 
flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved ? ' — Canti- 
cles, vi. 9 ; viii. 5. 

All God's works are complete and per- 
fect. There can be nothing wanting in the 
harmony of His operations. It was fit that 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 153 

when for love of us He proposed to become 
incarnate, He should prepare a mother as 
worthy as possible of Himself. It was fit 
that that mother should be the purest and 
most holy of creatures. Anything less than 
this would shock our ideas of His infinite 
perfection. So was Mary created a very 
marvel of purity and grace. And all the 
providences of God conspired to dignify and 
sanctify her. God ever treated her as His 
mother, and will ever treat her as such 
throughout eternity. It would be impossi- 
ble for any human creature to honor her as 
He has honored her. Any other course 
than this would be unworthy of Him, and 
a derogation from His divine perfection. 
We have meditated upon the life and death 
of Mary. It now remains to see that glory 
which she had merited, and which her Son 
was bound to%ive her, both by justice and 
by filial love. The holy soul of the Blessed 
Virgin had found its glorious place in 
Heaven, but this was not enough for the 
mother of God. Of her sinless and virginal 
body the Son of the Highest was born. He 



154 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

was enthroned in the very flesh and blood 
which He drew from her. It was meet 
that her body too should put on immortali- 
ty, and take its share in the mediatorial 
kingdom. Her own great sanctity merited 
this of God. Enoch and Elias had been 
translated in the days before the incarna- 
tion. The saints of the old law who had 
risen with Christ, had followed His trium- 
phal ascent. Why should she, who had 
been holier than all, be kept in waiting till 
the day of judgment ? If sanctity were 
any title to this privilege, her claim was be- 
yond that of all others . But she was con- 
ceived without sin, and freed by special 
grace from all the effects of the original 
curse. Death was one of these effects, with 
its heritage of shame and corruption. Mary 
was not under the law of death, and the 
grave had no claim upon hc^body. Why 
then should she be condemned to lie in the 
earth, and see the ignominy of dissolution ? 
Besides, it could never accord with the 
great plan of redemption that the Mother 
of God should know corruption. Decay 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 155 

could not touch the flesh of Jesus, because 
it wag the flesh of God. In like manner 
the sacred body of which He was made was 
to be preserved intact. When the Son 
was ascended on high, the mother yearned 
for her child, but the child no less yearned 
for the mother. Mary was no more a 
mother than Jesus was a son. His human 
heart yearned continually for the glory of 
His redeemed, and above all for the honor 
due to His mother. He could not sit down 
in the eternal throne in the flesh which He 
took from her, with her very lineaments 
and features, and leave her to the shame 
and penance of corruption. Moreover, the 
great office which she was to discharge re- 
quired her complete glorification, her pres- 
ence in body and soul to intercede for fallen 
man, and to bring him to a perfect restora- 
tion. These motives, which are taught us 
by the analogies and necessities of faith, 
are sufficient to warrant u> in demanding, 
in advance of any revelation, the assump- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin. . In accordance 
with all these reasonings the church of God 



156 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

comes in with her constant belief and uni- 
versal teaching, and bids us give thanks to 
God, and rejoice because the lowly Yirgin 
has been exalted to the right hand of her 
Son in Heaven. 

When the few days of mourning for the 
loss of Mary were over, the apostles bore 
her incorrupt and fragrant body to the val- 
ley where Jesus had taught and suffered. 
There they laid her in a new tomb as they 
had laid their master. And there they 
came day by day to watch and pray. It 
was a quiet spot, which reminded them of 
their Lord, and which seemed like the ante- 
chamber of Heaven. There lay the " pillar 
of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and 
frankincense, and of all the powders of the 
perfumer."* It was she of whom the Be- 
loved said, " My sister, my spouse is a gar- 
den enclosed, a fountain sealed up. Thy 
plants are a paradise of pomegranates with 
the fruits of the orchard. Cypress with 
spikenard, spikenard and saffron, sweet cane 
and cinnamon, with all the trees of Libanus, 

* Canticles, iii. 6. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 157 

myrrh and aloes, with all the chief per- 
fumes."* One day the disciples came to 
the tomb, and the body of the Virgin was 
gone. The door was open and the grave- 
clothes were laid upon the empty stone. 
Angels were singing their canticles of praise, 
telling how the Lord came down in power 
and bore in triumph the most beautiful 
body of His mother into Heaven. There 
was a triumphal ascent, as when He first led 
captivity captive, a gorgeous procession of 
angels to participate in the joy of the In- 
carnate God. This was all that man could 
know. But what must have been the joy 
of the Blessed Trinity, of the angelic spirits, 
and of Mary herself. God the Father wel- 
comed His own daughter, in whom He had 
ever been well pleased. The Son clasped 
to His bosom His own mother, and she 
was pillowed once more upon the sacred 
Heart. "I to my Beloved, and my Be- 
loved to me." The Holy Ghost was the 
support of His spouse in that consuming 
glory which no unaided creature can bear 

* Canticles, iv. 12-14. 



158 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and live. Angels and archangels and ser- 
aphs crowded around the throne to bless 
the great Creator for this most perfect work 
of His hand. And Mary herself was lost 
in transports of wonder and love. Now 
she had found a perfect union with her Son. 
In soul and body she was His, and never 
could she be separated from Him. She 
" found Him whom her soul loved, she held 
Him and would not let Him go." The 
glory which belongs to her as the Mother 
of God it is not for us to imitate, and yet 
the path which she trod is open to all her 
children. Unworthy, and sinful as we are, 
the Son of God redeemed us, and His re* 
demption signifies our complete union with\ 
Himself. He could have redeemed us in 
other ways ; He has seen fit to redeem us 
by taking our nature. So He purposes 
nothing less for us than the glorification of 
our souls and bodies in His eternal king- 
dom. Our bodies shall indeed sleep in the 
dust and be mingled with the earth ; but 
if they sleep in Him, the day of final resur- 
rection shall call them to His right hand, 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 159 

to the feet of His blessed mother, to the 
unending joys of Heaven. We shall find 
perfect union to God, and He alone shall 
fill every faculty of body and soul. In an- 
ticipation of this great consummation let 
us seek now to draw closer to Him, and 
iearn to turn from everything which would 
separate us from His love. He is a jeal- 
ous lover of souls, demanding for his nup- 
tial embrace a heart wholly pure and wholly 
detached from earthly things. In propor- 
tion as we seek Him, shadows shall flee 
away, darkness shall be driven out of His 
dwelling place, and He will take us by the 
hand and gently lead us. Would to God 
that we were ready for His espousals. But 
we must first seek purity from every sin, 
and every affection to sin, and theu by a 
pure intention seek and follow His foot- 
steps. As Mary is our model, so shall she 
be our guide. 



CHAPTER XXL 

THE CORONATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 
DAY OF REST. 

" Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus, 
come ; thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from 
the top of Sinai and Hermon , from the dens of the lions, 
from the mountains of the leopards." Canticles iv., 8. 

After the Blessed Virgin had been as- 
sumed into heaven, she received the crown 
which her great offices and her merits had 
earned. Although God crowns His own 
gifts in His creatures, nevertheless, He 
crowns them by a strict justice and by the 
obligation of His promises. Man cannot 
think a really good thought without His 
aid, and yet His greatest gifts never in- 
fringe upon our free-will. He promised to 
reward the' cup of cold water given to a 
disciple in his name. He promised a throne 
to the apostles, and St. Paul 1 oked for- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 161 

ward to the reward. " There is laid up for 
me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the 
just judge will render to me at that day ; 
and not to me ■ only, but to all them who 
love His coming."* As the merits of the 
Blessed Virgin tower above those of all the 
saints, so her crown far exceeds in glory. 
As she has an especial office in the media- 
torial kingdom, so her throne is erected at 
the right hand of her Son. It was not 
enough then for her to be taken up to 
heaven. All who enter that celestial palace 
are kings and priests to God, all wear 
crowns and bear palm-branches of victory. 
The Mother of God must receive her crown, 
and take possession of her seat of honor. So 
in accordance with catholic tradition, we 
find her last and highest glory in the cere- 
mony of her solemn coronation. Angels 
led her to the feet of her Son. He raised 
her up, and placed her by His side on the 
shining throne He had prepared for her, 
and God the Father, Son, and -Holy Ghost 
placed upon her head the bright crown. 

* 2 Eyi^tle St. Timothy, iv., 8. 
11 



162 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

The queen of heaven was enthroned, to the 
glory of the eternal Trinity and to the joy 
of patriarchs, and prophets, apostles and 
confessors, virgins and all- saints. There 
was nothing more that Mary could ask, for 
God, infinitely just and true, had more than 
fulfilled His promises. Here she found 
rest. — And when we look back through the 
wonderful life we have so faintly portrayed, 
when we consider its labors and sorrows, 
we find every mystery solved and all the 
divine providences clear. From the im- 
maculate conception to the solemn corona- 
tion in heaven, all God's ways are in har- 
mony. The same hand that woke creation 
out of nothing, and balanced the planets in 
their courses, formed and fashioned Mary, 
and led her from Bethlehem to Calvary, 
and from earth to her eternal rest. There 
is nothing wanting in this circle of the di- 
vine operations, and an overwhelming sense 
of the perfection of God's works prostrates 
us in love and wonder at His feet. " 
Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy 
name on the whole earth. What is man 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 163 

that Thou art mindful of him, or the son 
of man that thou visit est him ?" Mary had 
her great and peculiar privilege as the 
mother of God ; but aside from her divine 
maternity, she is only the model of a just 
soul. God called her, and she obeyed in 
every call. She was never unfaithful to 
His word or His grace. Hence she grew 
from day to day in knowledge and sanctity, 
and as the shining light she grew brighter 
and brighter till her light mingled with the 
perfect day of heaven. The voice of her 
Beloved called her from Libanus to be 
crowned, away from the dens of the lions, 
and the mountains of the leopards, away 
from the habitations of the adversary, from 
the power of every foe. She had minis- 
tered to Him ; now He will minister to her. 
She had seen labor and sorrow and mar- 
tyrdom ; now she enters upon an unending 
rest. In this path the great Sanctifier of 
souls seeks to lead us. We have our war- 
fare and our hardships, and then our re- 
ward. Alas ! we are so earthly and indif- 
ferent to divine things that we scarcely 



164 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

venture to look forward to joys eternal. 
Between sanctity and beatitude there is a 
natural and necessary relation, and con- 
scious of our sinfulness, we dare not antici- 
pate the bliss of heaven. Many only as- 
pire to be just free from sin which kills 
the soul, and have no longings for holiness. 
Yet this imperfect state between life and 
death is not the normal condition of a re- 
generate soul. We are called to higher 
things. Our Creator has chosen us for His 
own. He has breathed into us His spirit. 
He seeks a perfect union between our 
hearts and Himself. And when the intel- 
lectual man finds earthly things to be van- 
ity, how shall the regenerate man be in 
peace when he tramples upon any of the 
instincts of his spiritual life ? Is this then 
the lot of the pilgrim ? Must we be ever 
contending with our enemies, and shall we 
find no rest this side the grave ? Yes ! 
this must be our course until we shall be 
confirmed in grace. We have the world to 
subdue in every point, the devil to over- 
come, and, worse than all, our own self-love 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 165 

to extinguish. There will be no rest until 
these adversaries are vanquished. And yet 
if we give up the battle we shall lose all, 
and even the hope of peace hereafter. Is 
it too hard for us to follow the steps of 
Jesus and Mary ? Are we not animated 
by Mary's life and its glorious end ? It is 
at least well for us to look forward to the 
consummation of our course, and the end of 
our warfare. There remainetli a rest for 
the people of God. We may persevere and 
find that rest, when no temptation can come 
near us, when even the memory of the past 
shall torment us no longer. God has a 
crown in store for us, a mansion prepared, 
where peace flows as a river and justice as 
the waves of the sea. The lions shall be 
chained in their dens, and the leopards con- 
fined to their mountains. The hope of this 
rest should be our consolation in the ever- 
changing batt'e of life. It is this hope 
which cheers on the saints in their wonder- 
ful labors. The grave loses all its terror. 
The spiritual world becomes ever near to 
us, and is more really present to us than 



166 ARK OF THE C0VENAOT. 

the things of sense. And God whom alone 
we seek, and in whom we live, manifests 
Himself to us and often grants a foretaste 
of heaven even while we are in the way. 
If He is so good to us here, what will He 
be when we see Him face to face ? Mary, 
seeing God on earth and gloriously crowned 
in Heaven, is the picture of a just soul led 
by grace here and rewarded with glory 
hereafter. Let us ask of God to give us 
strength to follow her example, and let us 
begin now by a faithful correspondence 
with every inspiration of His Holy Spirit. 
Let our ears be open to hear His voice, 
and our wills quick to obey. Let our eyes 
be shut to the world, and open to Him 
alone, and His unerring providence will 
lead us safely. He will be our shepherd, 
and we can alway exclaim with the psalm- 
ist, " The Lord ruleth me, and 1 shall want 
nothing. He hath set me in a place of 
pasture. He hath brought me up on the 
water of refreshments ; He hath converted 
my soul. He hath led me in the paths of 
mstice, for His own name's sake. Though 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 167 

I should walk in the midst of the shadow 
of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art 
with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they have 
comforted me. Thou hast prepared a table 
before me against them that afflict me. 
Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and 
my chalice which inebriateth me, how 
goodly is it ? And thy mercy will follow 
me all the days of my life, that I may dwell 
in the house of the Lord forever."* 



CHAPTER IXIL 

THE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

" I made that in the heivens there should arise light that 
never faileth, and as a cloud I covered all the earth. I 
dwelt in the highest places, und my throne is in a pillar of a 
cloud." Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 6 — 7. 

The rapid and imperfect view we have 
taken of the joys, sorrows and glories of 
the Blessed Virgin, prepares us for a better 

* Psalm t xxii. 



168 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

appreciation of the great office she dis- 
charges in the economy of redemption. 
Every creature has its place and its proper 
vocation throughout the whole universe of 
God. There is nothing without its use and 
end. The intelligent creatures to whom 
God has given free will can accept or refuse 
His gracious purposes, but under all circum- 
stances they must contribute to His glory. 
If they will not magnify His mercy they 
must illustrate His justice. The happiness 
of the creature consists in perfectly cor- 
responding to the end for which he was 
created. So in the spiritual kingdom which 
our Lord has set up, apostles, martyrs, 
confessors, virgins, and even the humblest 
Christians, have their proper places and 
their especial offices. The mother of God 
has an office peculiar to herself, being ne- 
cessary to the incarnation, a sharer in the 
mysterious passion of Christ, and a channel 
of grace to all others. We do not limit in 
any way God's omnipotence. We do not 
say that He could not have redeemed the 
world in any other way than the one He 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 169 

has chosen. But He chose to take our 
nature into union with His divine nature, 
and to become flesh. To accomplish this 
a mother was necesssary, and Mary was 
therefore a necessity in the plans of God. 
The redemption purposed could not be 
effected without her, and she enters into 
the work of salvation as one of its great 
actors. She, only a creature, was to have 
her Creator for her child. This was her 
office to conceive in her womb, to bring 
forth, to nourish the eternal Word, and to 
act towards Him the part of a mother in 
time and eternity. We say in eternity, be- 
cause as her relation once existing, must 
endure forever, so her duties flowing from 
that relation could never cease. And all 
Mary's glory flows from the great relation 
in which she stands to God. 2so doubt 
she would have been the greatest of saiuts 
if God had not been pleased to make her 
His mother Yet she owes all her peculiar 
privileges to the part she had in the incar- 
nation. And in truth she could not be the 
mother of our Lord without the privileges 



170 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

which faith ascribes to her. It was, there- 
fore, to fit her for her office, that she was 
conceived without sin, that God continu- 
ally accumulated upon her the riches of His 
grace, As a necessary consequence of her 
dignity, she was assumed into Heaven, and 
seated upon a throne such as it was fit that 
the eternal Son should give His mother. 
And as her infinitely perfect chil 1 can never 
forget His filial duty, so she through all 
eternity can never forget the offices which 
flow from her maternal relation. She is 
more than any other creature interested in 
the glories of Jesus, and in the extension of 
His kingdom ; and therefore more than any 
one but God is she concerned in the sancti- 
fixation and salvation of souls. And as 
prayer is the appointed means of obtaining 
favors from above, so her intercessions must 
avail more with her Son than the prayers 
of all other' creatures. There is, moreover, 
an especial power springing from the share 
which she had in the passion of Christ. 
She, alone of all, whom He redeemed, suf- 
ferred with Him, and she foutid a real mar- 



ARK OF THB COVENANT. Ill 

tyrdoin in His death. Her union with His 
suffering was indeed a necessity in the 
divine plans. She could not avoid her 
great cup of agony, and Jesus could not 
be baptized with blood without also cover- 
ing His mother with the crimson flood. In 
all things her will was free, and she entered 
voluntarily into the awful tragedy to act 
her part, forced by no constraint, but giv- 
ing herself a free-will offering. Since she 
had such a share in the agonies by which 
man was redeemed, how can we doubt that 
she has a peculiar office in the application 
of the passion ? It was promised to the 
suffering victim that He should see of the 
travail of His soul, and be satisfied. Why 
should not the afflicted mother have her 
great share in this satisfaction ? By her 
martyrdom she not only added to her 
wonderful merits, but she established a new 
claim upon the gratitude of her Son. The 
sorrows which were the life of the world 
broke her heart, and gave her an especial 
right to see the fruit of those sorrows, to 
seek the lost and ruined sinner, and to bind 



112 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

up his hideous wounds. Some of the saints 
do not hesitate to call her the co-redemp- 
tress of the world, not because she was 
in any proper sense our redeemer, but be- 
cause of the great office which she has of 
suffering with -Christ, and of applying the 
saving blood to lost souls. Again, the 
facts of revelation, as well as the analogies 
of faith, demonstrate that she is the great 
channel through which grace flows from 
God to our fallen race. Jesus loves to con- 
vey His gifts through the hands of His 
mother. He hears her intercessions and 
grants her the power to dispense His 
favors. This is the most fitting reward to 
her merits. When all heaven is interested 
in the conversion of sinners, she could 
not sit idle on her throne. When the 
church of Christ excites the energies of an- 
gelic spirits, she cannot rest, who more than 
all creatures knows the heart of Jesus, and 
entered into the mysterious depths of the 
passion. Her prayers bring down daily the 
dew of heaven upon our barren hearts, and 
her hands scatter the gifts of His grace 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 113 

wherever there are souls to be roused from 
death or purified from sin. Every land 
testifies to her power. Every heart bears 
witness to her compassion. We feel the 
perfection and justice of the divine ways, 
and see how consistent throughout is the 
plan of salvation. Mary, next to the hu- 
manity of our Lord, the most beautiful 
creation of God, bears witness to the hand 
that formed her. We see how the eternal 
Word has taken a mother, not only in the 
necessities of the incarnation, but also for 
our sakes. He has given her to us for a 
mother in this valley of tears. " Woman, 
behold thy son." " Son, behold thy mother." 
This knowledge brings us to the shore of 
that great ocean of the divine love, in 
which our souls hope to be swallowed up 
for ever. Only through Mary do we see 
our God as He has revealed Himself, and 
come to some faint comprehension of the 
length and depth, and height of that mercy 
which planned the incarnation. Perhaps 
the reflections we have made upon Mary's 
life may bring us to a practical appreciation 
of her office towards God and man. If this 



114 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

be the result of our meditations, we shall ( 
have accomplished much in the work of our 
sanctification. We cannot conceive of 
Christianity without Mary, and any gospel 
without her is not the gospel of Christ. 
As she had the care of the real body of 
her Son, so to her are committed the inter- 
ests of His mystical body. She is a " light 
that never faileth, and her throne is in a 
pillar of a cloud." And yet her throne is 
a throne of mercy to which the sinner may 
ever come with confidence. She has noth- 
ing to do with the justice of God ; she is 
the minister of His mercy. To her, there- 
fore, let us look with hope in all the stages 
of our pilgrimage, and let us commit the 
care of our souls to her hands. Let us 
form our hearts after her model, and seek, 
by the imitation of her virtues, to become 
in truth her children. She will teach us 
how to serve God, and how to love her 
Son. We can never know the sweetness of 
Jesus, until we have learned at Mary's feet 
the mysteries of grace which are hidden in 
the "Word made flesh." 



CHAPTER XXm. 

THE FAITH OF MARY. 

" I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse ; I 
have gathered my myrrh, with my aromatical spices, 1 
have eaten the honeycomb with my honey, I have drank 
my wine with my milk ; eat, friends, and drink, and be 
inebriated, u dearly beloved."' — Canticles, v. 1. 

We have considered the life of the Bles- 
sed Virgin and the successive stages by 
which she ascended to God. We are now 
briefly to glance at the virtues which 
adorned her, and which w T ere the fruits of 
her great sanctity. She was the garden 
spoken of in the Canticles, full of the 
choicest fruits and flowers, exhaling the 
breath of myrrh and aromatical spices, and 
overflowing with the richness of the earth. 
We cannot linger long in this garden, nor 
can we rightly estimate its luxurious sweet- 
ness, but yet the slightest view of its varied 
fruitfulness will be enough to animate our 



IT 6 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

faith and hope, and to bind us with new 
love to Him whose hand made this most 
wonderful masterpiece of His creation. We 
begin with faith, because by faith man 
learns to know God, and overcomes the 
world. "This is the victory which over- 
comes the world, even our faith." We 
shall find in Mary all the degrees of a most 
perfect faith. We see in her whole life a 
most implicit trust in God, and confidence 
in His providence. By her immaculate 
conception she was exempt from the dark- 
ness of ignorance, and in all the dealings f 
God was able to see His hand. Clouds 
and mystery were about her, and yet she 
never doubted the divine purposes. Her 
faith was tried in the circumstances of her 
early life, when the archangel announced to 
her her great dignity, when St. Joseph was 
left to doubt of her purity, and in every 
step of our Lord's sufferings. 2\ot for one 
moment did she hesitate or waver in her 
trust in God, nor did a cloud for one mo- 
ment cast a shadow over the brightness of 
her faith. In all things she saw God, and 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. lit 

adored His wonderful ways, even when to 
flesh and sense they were inexplicable. Xo 
mortal has ever been compassed about with 
such strange and marvellous providences, 
and in all these trials the victory of her 
faith was perfect. To sustain her in the 
remarkable lot to which she was called she 
had a particular trust in God. The divine 
dealings to her were peculiar, and her faith 
was peculiar also. She knew from her in- 
fancy that her Creator had some great 
things in store for her, and she threw her- 
self upon Him with the most tender confi- 
dence. She had faith in God, and in Him 
alone, and the tranquility of her spirit 
could never be disturbed, for He could 
never break His covenant. This peculiar 
faith resulted from the reality of her con- 
secration to Him. Nothing was hard or im- 
possible which God purposed ; and she had 
no will but His. Her Maker became her 
child, and of all His creatures He had none 
to worship Him with as pure and ardent a 
faith as hers. She adored Him as her God 
jvery moment, and it was her faith which 
12 



178 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

made Him daily more and more dear to 
her. She saw Him in the manger of Beth- 
lehem, amid the poor and despised of this 
world, and bending beneath the ignominy 
of the scourge and the cross. He was not 
only her own child, He was her God, and 
this added the overflowing bitterness to her 
cup of agony. Her faith was so complete 
that all things earthly were far out of her 
sight. She lived, and could live for Jesus 
alone, and everything else was to her as far 
less than nothing. As the incarnation is 
the great central mystery of faith, so Mary 
was the first to understand and adore this 
mystery. il Blessed is she that believed," 
when the voice of the archangel first an- 
nounced this truth. She was the first to 
adore the Word made flesh when He was 
conceived in her womb, and every day 
opened to her new riches in the plan of re- 
demption. She alone teaches us how to 
understand the incarnation, as she is the 
the natural protector of the humanity of 
her Son. All heresies are directed against 
the truth of our Lord's incarnation, and the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 179 

love of Mary destroys them all. No false 
doctrine can abide where she is rightly hon- 
ored. Nor can any one really believe in the 
mystery of God manifest in the flesh with- 
out appreciating her office. If we could 
sum up all Mary's faith and love and joy, 
and express them in one word, perhaps we 
could hear her say, " Jesus, my God, is my 
child." "I to my Beloved, and my Be- 
loved to me." In fact, without the incar- 
nation there is no Mary, as without Mary 
there is no Christ. 

And the faith of the Blessed Tirgin was 
active, leading to great works and sustain- 
ing her in the unearthly life she had to lead. 
She believed in the redemption. She felt 
its power, and knew how the glory of her 
Son would one day cover the whole earth. 
She was content to wait God's time, and 
patiently to do her part. The faithless 
Jew denied the Redeemer and tracked the 
precious blood along the streets of Jerusa- 
lem. She looked forward to the day when 
she should apply that blood to heal many a 
ghastly wound, and to bring peace to many 



180 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

a broken heart. God was alway before her 
eyes, and in many things her faith was even 
sight, but great trials perfected her com- 
plete confidence in Him. She was so far 
above the world that the light of heaven 
ever rested upon her, and yet earth lay be- 
neath her in shadow and cloud. Where 
she saw not her faith was even better than 
sight, opening to her a constant and clear 
view of the invisible. 

To imitate our most blessed Mother in 
this virtue is our only way of salvation, and 
to closely follow her is a sure path to union 
with God. We may easily' trace all our 
failures to a want of faith. We wander 
from the true path, we fall into sin, we are 
the slaves of pride, and are full of de:ects, 
beca se we do not truly believe what our 
religion teaches. The things of sense are 
ever before our eyes, crowding out the view 
of divine realities, and we make little pro- 
gress because our aims are low and un- 
worthy of faith. We are all the children 
of God. Do we truly desire our sanctifica- 
tion, and are we ready for the sacrifices 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 181 

which it involves ? Then must we follow 
Mary in her faith, and look no more upon 
things seen. We must see the world as 
God sees it, and count its vanities as less 
than nothing. We shall learn to hate sin, 
and to price virtue, and a new earth will 
open to us with treasures which do not cor- 
rupt, and friends which do not deceive. 
Is not this the elementary idea of the chris- 
tian life ? If we are really members of 
Christ is not our citizenship in heaven ? Is 
it too much for God to ask us to realize 
the greatness of His own gifts and the 
dignity of our vocation ? We need faith 
in the divine providence, faith in God, faith 
in Christ, faith in the incarn ition, and faith 
in the redemption, and with this faith we 
can overcome the world, drive it entirely 
out of our hearts, and put our feet upon its 
idols. Let us apply this remedy against 
our besetting sins, and as the attraction of 
earth diminishes the attraction of heaven 
will increase. We have not yet looked at 
our sins in the light of faith, we do not 
know what miserable creatures we are in 



182 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

God's sight. Yet His eyes are to be our 
judge, aud we must one day support the 
scrutiny of His awful justice. Our religion 
brings us into a spiritual world peopled 
with angels and saints, where Mary reigns 
as queen and mother. We are elevated to 
a life far above the pleasures of worldlings 
and carnal men. Why should we ever for- 
get what God has done for us, and turn 
from infinite truth and beauty to the de- 
ceiving and unsatisfying joys of sense ? One 
spark of Mary's faith would illumine our 
whole being, and give a new impulse to all 
our spiritual energies. We have felt the 
need of it in our past wanderings from God, 
we shall feel the need of it still more as 
trials thicken around us and the shadows 
of death are thrown across our path. We 
shall need to grasp the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 
Mighty miracles of divine love are on every 
side of us. To see and feel them will be our 
support in all the perplexities of our pil- 
grimage. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE HOPE OF MARY. 

"My Beloved is gone down into His garden, to the bed of 
aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather 
lilies." — Ca>ticle3, vi. 1. 

The virtue of hope is kindred to faith and 
springs from it. There can be no hope 
without faith, and faith can hardly exist in 
the soul without hope. We should expect 
to find this virtue in the Blessed Virgin in 
its utmost perfection, and our expectations 
cannot be disappointed. In truth her whole 
life is an exhibition of its power, and she is 
in all things a model of christian hope. 
This virtue shone brightly in every stage of 
her career, and sustained her beneath afflic- 
tion which otherwise must have crushed 
her. She ever hoped in God because of 
His promises, because of His especial love 



184 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

to her, and because of what He had already 
done for her. Every day, which brought 
some new manifestation of the divine good- 
ness, added to her hopes. " From hence- 
forth all generations shall call me blessed, 
for He that is mighty hath done great 
things to me, and holy is His name." In 
her joys she looked forward to the accomp- 
lishment of God's perfect works. In her 
sorrows she ever contemplated the end, aud 
not even the darkness of Calvary could take 
the light from her heart. Her hope was 
the elastic power which resisted the pressnre 
of woes which no other mere mortal ever 
endured. She was tranquil under all the 
adversities of her lot. Her spirit was 
peaceful as the air of heaven, in the poverty 
of Bethlehem, in the exile of Egypt, in the 
cruel tortures of the crucifixion. Her 
glories were her rewards, and, in the full 
fruition which they brought her, gave her 
new reasons to expect great things from her 
Beloved. When she obtained what she 
desired, she tuned more tenderly towards 
her child, and hoped more fondly, as her 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 185 

interests and His were blended together. 
She was never disappointed, but the experi- 
ence of His perfect fidelity daily raised her 
to new and heroic heights of hope, until she 
realized what she longed for, and saw as 
present what she enjoyed in the future. 

We cannot select a single incident of her 
life where we do not find the power of this 
virtue. Before the incarnation of our Lord 
she was constantly looking for the consola- 
tion of Israel, and her ardent prayers for 
the coming of the Messiah were founded 
upon an unwavering trust in the divine 
promises. She did not know that she was 
to be the mother of God. She would not 
have, dared to anticipate such a dignity, yet 
the union of her heart with heaven taught 
her that the Orient from on high was soon 
to visit the world. She was obliged to 
pass under the shadows which covered the 
path of her child through this world. She 
gave Him birth in a stable and took her 
share in His cup of poverty and human 
contempt. Hope of better things was the 
lteht which made all her darkness sweet. 



186 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

We see her rising in the night and entering 
upon a long journey to Egypt, without a 
murmur or word of discouragement. We 
see her completely the child of God's provi- 
dence, taking every dispensation as her own 
choice, simply because the certain expecta- 
tion of the reward made everything easy. 
And her reward was the glory of her child 
and the extension of His kingdom on earth. 
We have seen how she supported her lone- 
liness, waiting for the great hour when the. 
interruption of her maternal offices should 
cease. We have seen her on the way to 
Mount Calvary, and how she stood patiently 
beneath the cross She neither fain ted jlof 
gave way to human weakness. Broken- 
hearted, she yet stood strong in hope, with 
full confidence in God. She went from the 
sepulchre, repeating the words of the psalm- 
ist : "I will bless the Lord, who hath given 
me understanding. I set the Lord always 
in my sight ; for He is at my right hanc* 
that I be not moved. Therefore my heart 
hath been glad, and my tongue hath re- 
joiced ; moreover my flesh shall also rest in 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. Ib7 

hope. Because thou wilt not leave my soul 
in hell, nor wilt thou give thy holy one to 
see corruption. Thou hast made known to 
me the ways of life, thou shalt fill me with 
joy with thy countenance ; at thy right 
hand are delights for ever."* The day of 
the resurrection came to realize her hope, 
and to reward her faith. And when her 
Son was taken from her, the thought of her 
throne so near to His, and of the bright 
crown His hands were to place upon her 
head, made cheerful her closing days in this 
world. Thus hope was one of the bright 
lilies which bloomed in this garden of the 
celestial spouse, where the king went to 
take His repose in the bed of aromatical 
spices. Hope is a virtue which especially 
pleases God because it is a constant adora- 
tion of His truth and mercy. He has done 
miracles of love to induce us to trust in 
Him, and when we throw away all human 
confidences and look to Him alone, we touch 
His heart. He will not and cannot disap- 
point any expectations which are founded 

* Psalm, xv. 7-11. 



188 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

upon His promises. He may try us, and 
sound the truth of our words, that we may 
" learn to hold fast the hope set before us, 
which we have as an anchor of the soul, 
sure and steadfast." If He bring darkness 
upon us, it is only to test our sincerity, and 
to make greater disclosures of His light 
when every created light shall have been 
taken away. He wishes us to exhibit the 
spirit which the Holy Ghost has inspired. 
" To Thee have I lifted up my eyes, who 
dwellest in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of 
servants are on the hands of their masters ; 
as the eyes of the handmaid are on the 
hands of her mistress, so our eyes are unto 
the Lord our God, until He have mercy 
upon us."* Much need have we of this 
spirit in the trials and discouragements of 
life. We cannot escape affliction for we are 
sinners. But the worst of all trials is the 
experience of our own weakness. We have 
to learn sooner or later the lesson of our 
own nothingness. If the dispensations of 
providence do not teach us this, fearful falls 

* Psalm, cxxii. 1-3. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 189 

will do it, and if we do not keep up our 
hope in God, we shall be in danger of des- 
pair. When we learn that the creature is 
nothing, we must at the same time learn 
that God is everything, or else our experi- 
ence will not avail to our sanctification. 
Discouragement is only an evidence of pride 
and selfishness. We must hope in God 
always, when frequent falls tempt us to give 
up altogether our confidence, and when the 
rod of the divine mercy prostrates us in the 
dust. Many a soul has realized the words 
of the psalmist : " My heart hath been in- 
flamed, and my reins have been changed, 
and I am brought to nothing, and I knew 
not. I am become as a beast before Thee. 7 '* 
God has a great work to do with our souls. 
Hope will sustain us while He who knows 
our frame seeks to purify us. Let us ask 
Mary to give us her clear view of eternal 
joys, and let us aspire continually for the 
things which God has prepared for them 
who love Him. This will make our pilgrim- 
age cheerful, will comfort us in every trial, 

♦Psalm, lxxii. 21-3. 



190 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

will give our feet buoyancy in the path of 
virtue, will gild our dying hour with a light 
that shall never fade. Hope will be to us 
the foretaste of the glorious promises which 
are sealed to us in the blood of the Son of 
God. 

" I am always with Thee. Thou hast 
held me by my right hand, and by Thy will 
Thou hast conducted me, and with Thy glory • 
Thou hast received me. For what have I 
in heaven ? and besides Thee, what do I 
desire upon earth ? For Thee my flesh and 
my heart have fainted away : Thou art the 
God of my heart and the God that is my 
portion for ever. It is good for me to ad- 
here to my God, to put my hope in the 
Lord God. That I may declare all Thy 
praises in the gates of the daughter of 
Sion."* 

* Psalm, lxxii. 24-8. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CHARITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 



"I sat down under His shadow, whom I desired ; and 
His fruit was sweet to my palate. He brought me into the 
cellar of wine, He set in "order charity in me. "--Canticles, 
U. 3-4. 



4.S the love of God is the sign of life, so 
in Mary the spouse of the Holy Ghost we 
find it in overflowing luxuriance. Her life 
was a life of love. In fact she lived through 
love and she died of love. Jesus was im- 
pressed "asa seal upon her heart, as a seal 
upon her arm." Her love was strong as 
death. Many waters could not quench it, 
neither coujd the floods drown it. To love 
God with tue whole heart and soul is the 
precept of the law, and all Christians are 
bound to render Him this service. Mary 
outstripped every command, and went be- 
yond every counsel of perfection. From 



192 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

her first existence she gave her pure heart 
to God, and she became more entirely His 
with every breath she drew. Her first rea- 
sonable act was an act of love to God, and 
every act which followed was a new fruit 
of her love. Every word she spake, every 
look , every though t; every respiration even 
was meritorious before heaven, because all 
she did was animated by her great ruling 
motive, the divine love. Her whole being 
was filled with her charity. To God she 
gave every faculty, every power of soul and 
body. And all this service was free on 
her part, No constraint was ever employed 
to force her obedience. She sought the 
divine attractions, and as they were daily 
more and more manifested to her, her will 
could hardly run fast enough for the im- 
pulses of her heart. Her sleep even, as the 
fathers tell us, was a beautiful offering to 
her creator. " I sleep," says she, in the 
Canticles, " but my heart waketh." " In 
my bed by night I sought Him whom my 
heart loveth." So perfect a passion for 
God excluded every affection merely human 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 19S 

from her soul. What was all of earth to 
her ? What were its strongest attractions 
to the eyes which gazed on the infinite 
beauty ? How like an empty bubble ap- 
peared to her every created thing, when 
compared with the immeasurable glories of 
the Creator ? Al the characteristics of 
love were found in her in their highest per- 
fection. Hers was a love of attraction 
since God first drew her to Himself, and 
her free will obeyed the call. Her love 
was also a love of gratitude. The favors 
she had received bound her by a tie of in- 
expressible sweetness to Him who had so 
magnified her. She could never do enough 
to show her thankfulness. He had freed 
her from every touch of sin, had taken the 
whole weight of Adam's sin from her shoul- 
ders, had lavished upon her the profusion 
of His grace. He had done more ; He 
had come down from Heaven, and had be- 
come her child ! He was a true, faithful, 
loving child to her. Could she ever make 
return for such favors ? All she could do 
was to throw herself back upon Him with 
13 



194 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

all she had to give — the wealth of that vir- 
ginal heart which He loved so well. He 
was everything to her, and she was nothing 
but what He had been pleased to make 
her. Her love was also one of preference. 
She was free to chose the object of her 
affection, and she chose her God and Him 
alone. Nothing but God ever moved her 
will. She had a clear sight of His claims 
upon her heart, and her whole intellect was 
filled with His light. She was therefore 
borne to Him the only choice of her soul, 
as surely and as steadily as the needle 
points to the pole. And so she accom- 
plished the love of union which made her 
one with the object of her love. In this 
degree of love, the person loving and the 
object loved meet together by one and a 
simultaneous action. God, the jealous 
lover of souls, throws His attractions around 
the heart, and the heart responds by an 
instantaneous burst of affection. Or rather 
the stream of love flows from God, and 
meets the stream which He sets in motion 
from the creature, and the two streams 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 195 

are mingled together. The Creator loving 
extends His arms to embrace the creature, 
and the creature loving casts itself into that 
blissful and unending embrace. In such a 
love everything earthly has vanished out of 
sight. There is perfect purification from 
every sin and every affection to sin, and 
the whole being is illumined with light that 
pervades every part, and puts every shadow 
of sense to flight. In Mary there was no 
need of purification. She was ever purer 
than the crystal dew of heaven. And 
from her very conception she was the tem- 
ple of the Holy Ghost, the tower of David, 
the tower of ivory and the house »of gold. 
There was no rebellion in her flesh, and no 
obstacle in her soul to the perfect effect of 
the divine graces. What she received she 
gave back to the giver, and in every obla- 
tion gave herself. The hearts of Jesus and 
Mary were the hearts of mother and child, 
and while one was the heart of God, filled 
with all His infinite riches, the other was 
the heart of the holiest of creatures, con- 
suming and overflowing with love. Angel 



196 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and archangel were mute before the throne 
of the infinite majesty. Cherubim and ser- 
aphim were the very intelligent expression 
of love, and yet no creature ever loved God 
as Mary loved Him, as she loves Him now, 
and as she will love Him through eternity. 
If we are in any sense the children of Mary, 
her heart is the model after which we are 
seeking to form our own hearts. If we 
have none of her love to God, we are in no 
sense her servants. The very first thing 
which she does for the sinner, is to give him 
a love for her Son. If she cannot accom- 
plish this in us, she can do nothing. Love 
is the sign of life. It is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost, whose indwell- 
ing makes us sons of God and heirs of 
Heaven. Without it we are dead and bar- 
ren branches of the vine. And even if we 
find in ourselves some degree of love, by 
comparing our hearts with Mary's, we shall 
see how utterly deficient we are in this 
most necessary of all virtues. The world 
has such a strong hold upon us that the 
divine attractions are hardly felt. We 



ARK OF THE CO VEX ANT 197 

mean to serve God, but our purposes, aims 
and wishes are formed after human models, 
and breathe a worldly spirit. Few are the 
generous hearts that freely and unreserv- 
edly follow the impulses of grace, to the 
utter disregard of human respect and human 
opinion. The flesh is rebellious, a d things 
sensual have not lost their power over us. 
We feel the divine attraction, but we re- 
spond feebly to it, as if afraid of the sac- 
rifices which may be the consequence. We 
say we have chosen God for our portion, 
but our actions belie our words. There is 
something else which we seek for, some 
other object of affection, some shapeless 
hope perhaps which we run after, as it ever 
eludes our grasp. And the worst of all is, 
that generally there is some dark corner in 
our hearts, some wound into which we like 
not to put the probing knife of the physi- 
cian. One would think that gratitude 
would rise above all these obstacles, but 
alas ! gratitude is rarer than love. Here 
we see the great want of our souls. Here 
we behold the cause of our imperfection. 



198 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

We see why we do not daily overcome our 
defects, why we remain ever as beginners 
in the way of life. The garden of the Lord 
is filled with weeds and briars, instead of 
fruits and flowers. Our resolutions come 
to nothing, our good intentions die before 
they result in actions, because the vital- 
flame of love burns so low and feebly in us. 
We are just alive, and that is all that can 
be said of the most of us. To be conscious 
of our need is the first step to restoration, 
and hence if the picture of Mary's loving 
heart makes us sensible of our coldness, we 
shall have accomplished much towards our 
recovery. Let us pray to her to give us of 
her own spirit. Let us really turn from 
earthly things, as she did. God will mani- 
fest Himself to us as soon as we make ready 
to receive His attractions. His love will 
be the sovereign remedy for all our ills. It 
will undo the effects of past sin, dispel the 
power of present temptation, and give peace 
to the most distracted heart. It will bind 
up every bleeding wound, and make the wil- 
derness a garden and the desert a paradise. 



CHAPTER XXVI, 

THE HUMILITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

" I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the val- 
leys." — Canticles, ii., 1. 

Humility is the foundation of all virtues, 
and without it no one can please God. 
Pride destroys every merit and puts ah end 
to all growth in holiness. The moment the 
creature exalts himself through conscious- 
ness of the divine gifts, he places himself in 
an attitude of rebellion. As the Blessed 
Virgin was the holiest of all creatures, so 
she was of necessity the most humble. In 
her, self-love was entirely extinct, and God 
was the only object of every action. As 
the incarnation was the great act of the 
divine condescension, so the mother par- 
took of the humility of her child. The 
same mind was in her that was in her Son. 



200 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

He was meek and lowly of heart, she was 
the white lily of the valley, the companion 
of the humility in which He was pleased to 
dwell. With all her gifts Mary had always 
a lowly opinion of herself. She was not un- 
conscious of what God had done for her, 
but she recognized that the favors she had 
received were all for the glory of the giver. 
She was only the handmaid of the Lord, 
and every new gift He gave her, only in- 
creased her debt. It did not stimulate any 
self-complacency. Rather she was the more 
abased at the sight of her own littleness, 
and she thought herself unworthy of any 
favor. Enveloped as she was with the 
wonderful displays of divine power, in all 
she saw only the love and mercy of her 
Creator. " He hath regarded the humility 
of His handmaid. " " He that is mighty 
hath done great things to me, and holy is 
His name. 5 ' " He hath put down the 
mighty from their seats, and hath exalted 
the humble." She was too lowly in spirit 
to think she was to become the mother of 
God, although she might have learned it 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 201 

from the wonderful providences which sur- 
rounded her. The message of the arch- 
angel startled her because she was too hum- 
ble to dream of such a dignity, and she 
trembled when Gabriel bent the knee be- 
fore her, and called her "full of grace." 
And when Jesus lay in her arms, and she 
clasped her God to her bosom, her joy left 
the creature far out of sight to rest alone 
in the beauty of the creator manifest in 
the flesh. Bui though she was conscious 
of her gifts, she was not conscious of her 
merits. She set no value on what she did, 
and she ascribed all her graces to the un- 
deserved love of God, rather than to her own 
good works. She never thought that her 
virtues had drawn the eternal Word to her, 
or that her great reward in heaven was to 
be the recompense of her fidelity. And 
she was ever disposed to conceal from 
others the great favors God had bestowed 
upon her. When St. Elizabeth called her 
blessed above all women, and by the im- 
pulse of the Holy Ghost gave her praise 
for the faith she had shown, she simply re- 



202 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

plied, ll My soul doth magnify the Lord.*' 
When St. Joseph was permitted to doubt 
of her integrity, she had no words of de- 
fense for herself, but left it for God to 
teach him the mystery of the incarnation. 
She never prided herself on her dignity, or 
before others exacted any of her maternal 
privileges. She loved the obscurity of her 
home in Nazareth, where the world knew 
nothing of her joys, and where St. Joseph 
and her Son were accounted as laborers. 
She went to the temple as the law com- 
manded, and made an offering for her puri- 
fication, when she had never known sin. 
She appeared before the altar as any ordi- 
nary woman, leaving it for God to make 
known her dignity, if He should see fit, 
or to leave the world in ignorance of her 
privileges. And although she was the 
mother of the Highest, excelling in rank 
the most glorious archangel, yet the lowli- 
est duties were her delight. She went a 
long journey to serve her cousin Elizabeth, 
and remained with her three months. 
Nothing pleased her more than to minister 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 203 

to others. She became the mother of the 
disciples of our Lord, and after His resur- 
rection remained on earth to direct and as- 
sist the apostles in the foundation of the 
Church. No one ever came near her, that 
she did not seek to do them some kindness. 
It is so now, when she is in heaven, and it 
will be so throughout eternity. The love 
of contempt was also a crowning feature in 
her humility. The poverty of Bethlehem 
was dear to her. It shut her in a cave, with 
her child, away from the world. When men 
despised Him, it wounded her in her ten- 
derest point, but for herself she had no 
care. In the day of triumph she was not 
seen. She was not present when the mul- 
titude came to take Him by force and 
make Him a king. When He rode into 
Jerusalem with the palm-branches waving 
before Him, and the shout of hosannas 
rending the air, the mother did not mingle 
in the general joy. But when the mob 
were dragging Him in His own blood 
through the streets, she went out to par- 
take of His cup of ignominy. She stood to 



204 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the last by the cross, heedless alike of the 
scorn of her own nation, or the rough jeer 
of the infidel. In sorrow, contempt, pov- 
erty, she was ever at His side, because she 
loved to be nothing among mankind, since 
God was everything to her, and the crea- 
ture nothing. And her course of self-abne- 
gation still continues. She has never vin- 
dicated her own honors, except when they 
concerned the honor of her Son. She has 
been established in Sion, and has taken 
root in God's holy mountain, and her 
throne is in the full assembly of saints. Yet 
she has never asked for any privilege, but 
to defend with her own person the rights 
of her. child. She was all for Jesus, with- 
out a thought of herself. Such a wonder- 
derful degree of humility became the mother 
of God, and we her children praise the di- 
vine wisdom which has given us such a 
model. Pride is the root of all our evils, 
and the cause of our many imperfections. 
We are not only conscious of our gifts, but 
we even imagine favors which do not belong 
to us. Scarcely ever do we have a true 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 205 

idea of ourselves. When we sin or wound 
our Lord by infidelity, we have a ready ex- 
cuse. When we do any good work, we are 
quick enough to ascribe it to our own vir- 
tues. We fear much that others will take 
too low an estimate of our merits, and are 
quite often anxious to make known every 
advance we make in the way of self-mas- 
tery. We cannot easily condescend to do 
kind offices for others, except when some 
praise will be our reward. And as for the 
love of contempt, it is far above ordinary 
Christians, and has the appearance of fa- 
naticism- in those who profess it. It is easy 
to see that self lies at the bottom of many 
of our best and holiest actions. Yet with 
the sincere confession of our weakness, let 
us not be discouraged. God became incarr 
nate to cure our pride. Mary was the most 
humble of creatures to be our model. Let 
us follow in her footsteps. We have had 
experience enough to convince us that in 
our own strength we can do nothing. Let 
us never think of any strength but God's. 
His arm will be under us if we look to Him 



206 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

alone. And if we really desire conformity 
with Christ, the heavenly physician will 
know how to minister to our maladies. He 
will lead us by paths we could not have 
conjectured to the valley of self-abnegation, 
and there teach us to cast off our whole 
load of sin. Humility then will not be un- 
real in us, nor hypocritical. It will spring 
from the thorough conviction of the all* 
sufficiency of God, and the utter nothing* 
ness of all created things. Happy are they 
who learn this lesson. " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
God." " He that humbleth himself shall 
be exalted," and "if we suffer with Christ, 
we shall also reign with Him." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE PURITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 



" Thy name is as oil poured out, therefore young maid- 
ens have loved thee. Draw me, we will run after thee, to 
the odor of thy ointments."— Casticles, i., 2-3. 



No mortal tongue can worthily speak of 
the purity of the holy mother of God, and 
yet while we linger in this " house of gold," 
it is meet to consider a virtue of which she 
is the great model and exemplification. In 
body and soul she was wholly consecrated 
to God, and the infection of sin never came 
near her. Conceived without sin, she was 
freed from the effects of the fall and its ig- 
nominy. She never knew the stimulus of 
concupiscence, and there was no rebellion 
of the flesh against the spirit. The prince 
of the world came to her, and found nothing 



208 AUK OF THE COVENANT, 

in her to correspond with bis temptations. 
Hence he was baffled at every point, and 
could only address her with external solic- 
itations which were resisted as soon as pre- 
sented. The degree of* holiness to which the 
Blessed Virgin' attained, led her to the most 
perfect love of God. This love produced a 
true and real espousal to her celestial bride- 
groom, and the vow of virginity was the 
necessary consequence. That vow is only 
the consecration which love in its highest 
degree includes. Of all the daughters of 
Eve, Mary was the first to solemnly devote 
herself in body and soul to the worship of 
God. She began that life on earth, which 
is the augelic life in heaven. And after her 
many have followed, according to the words 
of Scripture, " after her shall virgins be 
brought to the king." Her name hath 
touched many souls, inspiring them with 
the divine love, and coming as oil poured 
out to soothe and heal the wounds of earth,. 
" Therefore young maidens have loved 
her," and following her attractions, have 
run after her to the odor of her ointments. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 209 

She made her yow in her early years, and 
she would not have sacrificed her virginity 
even to be mother of God. She was es- 
poused to St. Joseph with the express un- 
derstanding that she should ever remain a 
virgin, and because wonderful designs of 
providence so ordered. When the arch- 
angel Gabriel announced to her that she 
was to bring forth the Messiah, she did not 
consent until she was clearly assured that 
her purity should be preserved intact. It 
was only when she heard that she was to 
conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
that she exclaimed, "Behold the handmaid 
of the Lord, be it done unto me according 
to thy word." Thrice precious among all 
the jewels of heaven is this grace of virgin- 
ity of which Mary was the example. Her 
holy soul was also beyond the reach of any 
contamination. No darkness or ignorance 
ever clouded its clear view of God and 
things eternal. Every thought was the 
inspiration of the Divine Spirit who dwelt 
in her, and the pure intention with which 
every act was performed made her least 



210 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

work an acceptable offering in the sight of 
heaven. In her heart was no place for any 
merely human affection. If she loved any 
human thing, it was by love which first 
went up to God, and then descended from 
Him to His creatures. In her there was no 
division of services, no half-way consecra- 
tion. All was for God. She was a temple 
filled with His life and light, and ever re- 
sounding with His praise. Such purity the 
creation had not before seen. It was a 
wonderful condescension to our fallen hu- 
manity, that she was made a creature like 
unto us, instead of a bright angel formed 
to tread the golden streets of the celestial 
city, and walk in the midst of the stones of 
fire. Yet Mary, the second Eve, the mother 
of the living race, was only a daughter of 
Adam adopted by God as His own daugh- 
ter, the mother of His Son, and the spouse 
of His eternal Spirit. 

Of all virtues, perhaps chastity is the most 
difficult to practise. In our fallen state the 
flesh ever rebels against the spirit, and the 
motions of concupiscence are sometimes a 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 211 

heavy trial to the regenerate soul. Sense 
allures with the sight of apparent good, and 
our appetites are seduced by the desire of 
gratification. Without grace we cannot 
overcome the power of sin in our members. 
But thanks be to God, who hath given us 
the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Under the new law where sin abounded, 
grace much more abounds. The Redeemer 
has wrought a perfect work. He has left 
grace to counteract every effect of the fall, 
and His blood has power to cleanse every 
stain and defilement. He pours His Spirit 
into our hearts and washes us clean from 
every transgression. He gives us His own 
flesh, which is the food of angels, and His 
own blood, which is the wine that germin- 
ates virgins. He gives us the immaculate 
Mary for our mother, and he briugs the 
young heart to her and seeks to preserve it 
from the contaminations of the world. 
What more could infinite love devise ? 
God calls us all to preserve purity accord- 
ing to our state of life. Virginal chastity 
is not the lot of all His servants. But all 



212 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

are bound to seek Him alone with upright 
souls, and to be pure in heart. " Blessed 
are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God," shall draw nigh to Him in this life, 
and experience even on earth His gracious 
manifestations. And in proportion as we 
purify our hearts, does the great King come 
near us, to draw us more completely within 
the circle of His attractions, and to bring 
us to oneness with Himself. For all our 
past sins against this great virtue there is a 
remedy at hand. A stream purer far than 
Jordan rolls at our feet. We must wash 
in it seven times and we shall be clean, and 
the flesh of a child shall come back to us. 
For every present temptation we have a 
ready assistance. Jesus and Mary are ours. 
We have but to ask, and the arm that pros- 
trated the tempter in the wilderness will 
hold us up. We have but to call upon 
Mary, and the serpent whose head she 
crushed will flee away. The cool breath of 
the rose of Sharon will revive our fainting 
spirit ; the fragrance of the lily of the 
valley will throw around us the air of 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 213 

heaven. And for the future let us prize 
our purity even above all virtues. Let us 
guard our senses, for the least touch will 
iefile us. One unguarded moment will 
undo the work of many years. Let us re- 
member that we belong to God, that Jesus 
is our Master, that Mary is our mother. 
Whatever grace God may deny us, let us ask 
Him to give us this most precious jewel of 
chastity. Let Him bring us into the waters 
of affliction, or prostrate our strength be- 
neath the wasting power of disease, rather 
than let us fall victims to sin which defiles 
the body and kills the soul. And happy 
are they who can follow closely in Mary's 
footsteps. The heavenly Bridegroom will 
be faithful to them. He will lead them 
into green pastures, and one day they shall 
follow Him wheresoever He goeth. 



CHAPTEB XXVIII. 

THE POVERTY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

"I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? I 
have washed my feet, how shall I defile them V 1 — Caot. v. 3. 

Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ has given 
us a perfect example of poverty and con- 
tempt of the world. Having condescended 
to take our nature, He chose to be in a 
lowly and humble position. For our sakes 
He chose to be "made poor, that we 
through His poverty might be made rich." 
He could have enjoyed all the wealth of 
the world, and all its luxuriance might have 
rolled at his feet. He could have been born 
in a palace with thousands to wait upon 
His every want. But the gifts of earth did 
not become the humility of the incarnate 
God. He saw the emptiness of human 
things, and He would not touch any of the 



f 

ARK OF THE COVENANT. 215 

gilded vanities which so attract mankind. 
It was His will to be driven out of the 
habitations of men, and to have no place 
where to lay His head. He preferred a 
cave for His birth-place, and the oxen's 
stall for His cradle. His holy mother, 
whose heart was one with His, took part 
in His self-abnegation. The world was 
nothing to her, and all its riches could not 
excite one emotion in her soul. She gave 
all she had to the poor, that for the service 
of God she might be emancipated from 
every care. The fathers tell us that in her 
early childhood she made a vow never to 
possess any of the goods of this earth. 
"Where our treasure is there also is our 
heart." She desired to have no treasure 
here, that her heart might be wholly united 
to God. It was, therefore, no trial to her 
to bear the pains and inconveniences of 
poverty. The cave of Bethlehem was a 
sweet hiding-place where she could prove 
to her child that she loved nothing but 
Him, The Magi brought their costly gifts, 
and they were devoted to charity. She 



216 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

went before the altar with two turtle-doves, 
the offering of the poor, and knelt among 
the crowd. The angel called her at mid- 
night to arise in haste and fly to Egypt. 
She arose at once, leaving all she had, and 
began her long and painful journey. Many 
a time she felt the pangs of hunger and 
thirst in her pilgrimage through the desert, 4 
and during her lonely sojourn in the land 
of idolatry. Her food was always coarse, 
and her raiment plain. When the holy 
family returned to Nazareth, a lowly cot- 
tage became their abode, where Jesus, 
Mary and Joseph all worked with their 
hands to earn their daily bread. There 
was no rest for them in this world of sin. 
The second Adam came to the thorny 
ground of the first Adam, and took His 
portion of toil. It was Mary's delight to 
be among the poor, and even to do menial 
offices for others. She drank in more and 
more every day of the spirit of her child, 
and became more and more detached from 
every earthly thing. When He left her to 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 217 

begin His ministry she was dependent upon 
the charity of others. 

He was on the mountain, and in the 
desert, and why should not His mother be 
a pilgrim like Him ? And when He died 
He gave her in trust to St. John, that the 
disciple whom He loved might provide for 
her wants. In Mary's poverty we see not 
only the entire renunciation of all worldly 
goods, but a complete separation from them 
in heart. She had nothing, and she desired 
nothing. Her soul" was most tranquil, be- 
cause no created thing had power to touch 
her heart. She had put off all the garments 
of earth, how could she ever put them on 
again ? She had washed her feet from 
every defilement of corruptible treasure, 
how could she touch again the dust of this 
world ? She had only one posession, an 
infinite one, her God ; and this filled her 
whole heart. 

There is much for us to learn in this brief 
view of the poverty of the Blessed Yirgin. 
The Church commends this virtue as most 
necessary for all who would tread in the 



218 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

steps of her Master. Actual poverty is no 
doubt a grace for such as use it rightly. 
The poor are freed from many temptations, 
and are not so likely to fasten their affec- 
tions upon worldly things. Their hard life 
here is an incentive to look above for en- 
during treasures. To a certain extent they 
must feel themselves strangers and pilgrims 
on their way to a better country. Hence 
the poor are generally the favored children 
of God. The Lord was surrounded by them 
when He was on earth, and His church is 
espe ially their portion. But poverty of 
spirit is essential for all who would be saved. 
We must learn to despise worldly things , or 
we can make no real progress in the love 
of God. Whatever goods of earth God 
may give us, we must not fix our affections 
upon them, nor desire them for their own 
sake. As good christians we must be de- 
tached from the treasures of which we are 
only stewards. Our Lord Himself has said 
that it is hard for the rich to enter into His 
kingdom, and that they who trust in riches 
have no hope of salvation. With the pos- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 219 

session of wealth comes care, which weighs 
upon the soul, and bears it down among the 
pursuits of time. Many spend their whole 
lives in toil and labor, and have no reward 
but treasures which one hour may take 
away, and which can never go beyond the 
grave. The brief joys of the rich will never 
pay for the anxious mind or the aching 
heart. If we are poor we must bless God 
for this grace, and endeavor to turn it to 
our sanctification. If we are encumbered 
with the possessions of this life, we must 
use them for the benefit of our neighbors, 
as well as our own salvation. We must make 
to ourselves friends of the mammon of 
iniquity, that when we fail they may receive 
us into eternal habitations. The Catholic 
religion, animated by the spirit of its divine 
Head, has taught us many heroic lessons in 
the virtue of poverty. It has taught many 
souls to emulate the graces of Mary, and 
cheerfully to lay down at the feet of Jesus 
every temporal thing. Princes have de- 
scended from their thrones to cast the dust 
of this world from their feet, and to be 



220 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

wholly emancipated for the service of God. 
The vow of poverty is a necessary condition 
of the religious state, since perfect conse- 
cration of the soul is inconsistent with any 
hold upon the things of this life. No one 
can leave the world except by renouncing 
all that he has, and by choosing alone a 
heavenly treasure. " If thou wilt be per- 
fect, go and sell what thou hast and give 
to the poor, and follow me, and thou shalt 
have treasure in heaven." 

The example of the Blessed Virgin will 
be our encouragement, as we endeavor to 
walk in her footsteps. She will gently wean 
us from the love of all earthly possessions, 
guiding us, as we can bear it, to a more 
and more perfect life. We need not be 
discouraged at the sight of our own self- 
love, nor at our great repugnance to morti- 
fication. We shall not learn detachment 
all at once, nor in the easy way our imagina- 
tions have pictured. But with Mary for 
our model we cannot wander from the right 
path. As things temporal recede little by 
little from our view, things eternal will 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 221 

draw nearer to us. The chains that bind 
us to earth will be broken one by one, and 
the love of God will be the only solace of 
our free spirits. Who would compare cor- 
ruptible treasures with the infinite wealth 
of God, who becomes Himself the posses- 
sion of His saints ? 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE OBEDIENCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

" To ray company of horsemen in Pharao's chariots have 
I likened "thee. O my love. Thy cheeks are beautiful as the 
turtle clove's, thy neck as jewels. We will make thee chains 
of gold, inlaid with silver." — Canticles, i. 8-10. 

By disobedience our first mother Eve 
lost Paradise, and left to us an inheritance 
of shame. The second Eve, who was to 
restore us to our birthright, accomplished 
her task by a life of perfect obedience. 
The service of God requires the submission 
of all our faculties to His will. The laws 



222 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

which He gives us are only the expression 
of the eternal and unchangeable counsels 
of the divine Being. A creature endowed 
with free will can resist the purposes of the 
Creator, but by so doing he frustrates the 
end for which he was made. An intelli- 
gent obedience is not only the tribute due 
to the Author of our existence, it is also the 
only way of happiness. Pride excites us to 
rebel against the divine counsels, and has 
been the cause of our ruin. The Blessed 
Virgin began the work of our reparation 
by a just and true service of God. In every 
act of her whole life she was guided by the 
sincere desire to obey the voice of the Holy 
Spirit, and hence she never sought for one 
instant her own pleasure. All that self 
would dictate she utterly renounced, and 
every moment her whole being was a sacri- 
fice to God. Her soul desired nothing but 
Him, her heart loved nothing but Him, and 
her intellect knew nothing but Him. Be- 
ing exempt by her especial privilege from 
original sin, the disorders of the fall never 
reached her. There was never rebellion in 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 223 

any part of her being, nor even an impulse 
contrary to the wishes of her Beloved. He 
had but to speak and instantly she obeyed, 
and His work and her co-operation kept 
pace in her soul. So is she compared to a 
company of horsemen hastening after the 
voice of their captain ; and the chains of 
gold inlaid with silver are the symbol of 
the perfect union of will between herself 
and her celestial spouse. Since then every 
breath she drew was an act of obedience, 
it is hard to particularize the proofs of her 
heroic conformity to the divine pleasure. 
In her early life she offered herself to God, 
because His voice called her to the sacri- 
fice, and the irrevocable vow was only the 
expression of her self-abnegation. The 
office of Mother of God was freely accepted 
by her, with a full knowledge of the pains 
it involved. The spirit of her life was ac- 
cording to her words, " Behold the hand- 
maiden of the Lord ; be it unto me accord- 
ing to thy will." She took a long journey 
to Bethlehem, led by the Holy Spirit, that 
according to prophecy she might bring forth 



224 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

the Son of God in the city of David. Blind 
obedience led her to the stable, to the de- 
spised village of Nazareth, to the lonely 
sojourn in Egypt. It was her consolation 
never to have any desire of her own, and 
hence every event of providence found her 
prepared. We have seen the Son of the 
highest bowed down to the earth in Geth- 
semane, while blood gushed from every pore 
of His body. We have seen the God-man 
lifted upon a cross between two thieves, 
drinking to the dregs the cup of the world's 
scorn and contempt. A spectacle like this 
man had never seen before, and shall never 
see again. But next to this as ounding 
picture, is the sight of the broken-hearted 
mother, standing beneath the accursed tree 
and offering up her infinite treasure, her 
only child, all she had. No mere creature 
ever approached this act of self-renuncia- 
tion. As obedience raised the knife by 
which our father Abraham prepared to slay 
his only son, so obedience sublime and won- 
derful fastened the afflicted Virgin to. the 
foot of the cross. In all she adored the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 225 

divine purposes, in darkness as in light, in 
the shadows of death as in the splendors of 
the resurrection. Obedience had reached 
its height. Calvary was its test. Mary 
gave God back to God, and not in the ten- 
der beauty of infancy as she received Him, 
but with bruised and mangled limbs crim- 
soned with His own blood. The sinner 
may draw near the cross which he prepared 
for Mary's Son. and learn the lesson of sub- 
mission to God's will. If he cannot learu 
it here, there is no teacher who can instruct 
him. Our lives have been made up of re- 
bellions, and our free wills have often been 
employed to dishonor our creator and to 
contemn His laws. We could have given 
Him much glory before men and angels, 
and we have refused to pay Him our tri- 
bute. Disobedience to His voice is the 
cause of every misery we have experienced, 
and there is but one remedy for our mani- 
fold infirmities. We must trample under 
foot our own will, and by fidelity to all 
divine inspirations seek to recover the graces 
we have lost. Regeneration made us in 
15 



226 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

truth the children of God with the docility 
which belongs to the heart of a child. " We 
must humble ourselves and become as little 
children" if we desire to enter into the 
kingdom of Heaven. All God's providences 
are directed for our sanctification. Not a 
sparrow falls to the ground without His 
knowledge, and even the hairs of our heads 
are numbered. Is it not easy to throw our- 
selves into the arms of His fatherly care, 
and to be led by His all-perfect counsels ? 
In the spiritual life He calls us to many 
trials. No character could be perfected 
without painful lessons of the nothingness 
of human promises. Yet wherever there 
is the earnest purpose to obey, there is 
alvvay light enough to illumine our foot- 
steps. We need not to behold the distant 
scene when present duty is clear, and the 
voice of conscience gives us its plain ad- 
monition. God calls the sinner to repent 
of his sins, and to cut himself off from all 
dangerous occasions. He calls a thousand 
times, and often His call is totally disre- 
garded. He seeks continually the perfec- 
tion of the just, and bids them aim for 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 227 

higher and higher degrees of holiness. TVe 
hear His voice, but we have not the incli- 
nation or the courage to obey Him. So 
He can do very little with our souls, and 
there is no chance for us but in the scourges 
of His anger, or in the purifying flames of 
justice. How much better would it be for 
us to yield Him a loving heart and to let 
His great mercy accomplish its work in us- 
" Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who 
walk in the law of the Lord." 

That we may not lose the fruit of these 
reflection-, let us directly apply them to our 
own hearts, and ask our consciences to tell 
us the duty which at this moment God re- 
quires of us. The answer will often come 
before we ask the question, and then if we 
desire any part in Mary's reward, we must 
imitate her obedience. At once, and with 
zeal we must do the work which our heav- 
enly Master commands, and we shall find 
our labors light and our toil even refresh- 
ing. From the way of life our feer shall 
never wander, for He who is our guide can 
never err. Step by step we shall leave the 
valley behind us, and ascend the mountain 



228 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

where God gathers His elect, and where 
the human will lays itself down at the feet 
of the divine perfections. If we hesitate 
and seek to serve the world as well as God, 
we shall either fall altogether from the state 
of grace, or iead a cold and unhappy life, 
constantly tasting of remorse, and treasur- 
ing up fearful regrets for the hour of death. 
Who can estimate the results of one false 
step, or tell the evils that shall flow from 
one disobedience ? Many a soul which 
would have glorified its creator through the 
long ages of eternity, is now agonizing in 
the eternal fire because of one transgres- 
sion. There are souls just hanging between 
life and death, and the next act shall de- 
cide their destiny. And many of us for 
whom perhaps God designed high perfec- 
tion, have wandered from the narrow path, 
when the heavenly goal was almost in view ; 
and one slight infidelity was the turning 
point in our probation. Happy indeed was 
Mary to have been the mother of her God, 
but happier far that always and in every 
thing she heard His word and kept it. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE PATIENCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

"The keepers that go about the city found me ; they 
struck me and wounded me. The keepers df the walls took 
away my veil from me."— Canticles, y. 7. 

As humility is the foundation of virtue, 
so patience is the beautiful crown of a just 
soul, giving gracefulness and honor to all 
its works for God. There are two kinds 
of patience, one which consists in waiting 
upon the divine will, and another which 
leads to the improvement of suffering. The 
first is in reality a trial of our obedience, 
since as God is our creator He has a sove- 
reign right to dispose of us and of all 
human things according to His own pleas- 
ure. Man is naturally selfish and unwil- 
ling to leave all his desires in the hands of 
Providence. Our purposes often ripen 



230 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

faster than the designs of God, and it is 
hard to rest quietly without any care for 
the results of our labors. Yet we can 
never wholly please Him, unless we are 
content to act with that end alone in view. 
If we seek for an immediate reward, or are 
anxious to see the fruits of our labors, we 
shall make little progress in the way of ho- 
liness. Even in the affairs of this world we 
can never be truly successful without pa- 
tience, but in the spiritual life we can 
accomplish absolutely nothing. For new 
difficulties present themselves at every step, 
as temptations multiply and the great weak- 
ness of our own hearts manifests itself. As 
the husbandman toils carefully in the spring 
and then awaits the harvest, so we must 
labor in hope and faith, leaving it for God 
to give the increase in His own time* But 
suffering is also a law of progress in the re- 
generate soul, and we can get back to the 
paradise we have lost only by pain. There 
is sorrow of heart and agony of body, and 
both are necessary to our purification. " He 
that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased 



ARK OF THE OOVKKAMT, 231 

The road of the cross is the 
royal road of sanctification. Great pa- 
tience is required to bear well the afflic- 
tions of our probation, and to turn them to 
the profit of our souls. The Blessed Vir- 
gin is a perfect model of this virtue in all 
its degrees, and under all its trials. Xo 
creature was ever the subject of such pecu- 
liar and strange providences. She was in 
the hands of God without a care for her- 
self, and as His purposes developed, she 
was more and more anxious to renounce 
her own desires. She left Him to fulfil 
His promises in His own time, certain that 
He would never fail her, and filled with in- 
creasing admiration at His wonderful ways. 
She was in the midst of mysteries half- 
opened, where the divine hand was surely 
operating, but where flesh and sense were 
forced to be tranquil Xow her celestial 
spouse appeared to her full of grace, and 
oil was upon His lips, Xow He came up 
from the desert stained with blood, and 
clouds and darkness were round about 
Him. In every shape she recognized Him, 



232 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and meekly awaited His will. Never for 
one instant did she have recourse to any 
human means, or seek to accomplish any- 
thing by plans of her own devising. She 
labored in His garden and at His word, 
and she had nothing to do when He held 
her hands. If He gave no success to her 
toil, it gave her no pain, for she sought not 
success, but only His favor. Hence she 
was never in haste, nor for a passing mo- 
ment lost her tranquillity. Quiet, calm and 
peaceful was the work going on in her soul, 
and yet her progress was more rapid than 
the flight of the eagle as he leaves far be- 
hind the high mountains of earth. So has 
He promised, u They that hope in the Lord 
shall renew their strength, they shall take 
wings as eagles, they shall run and not be 
weary, they shall walk and not faint." In 
our brief view of Mary's dolors we have 
seen how she drank the cup of sorrow, and 
was baptized in the blood of her Son. The 
shadow of the cross was over her whole life, 
enveloping in its darkness even her bright- 
est hours. And all her pains were unmer- 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 233 

ited, and came to her as the precious gift 
of her child, and the fruit of her union with 
Him. Her different griefs pierced every 
portion of her maternal heart, and the 
sword of Simeon was never withdrawn 
from her bosom. Patience, sublime and 
wonderful, sustained her in agonies, which 
without special grace would have extin- 
guished her life. In the night of her third 
sorrow she walked alone in the waste of 
human woe, without even the rod and staff 
of her Son. Disease could not touch her 
fair form, because the immaculate flesh of 
the mother of God was beyond the reach of 
decay. ■ But the anguish of her soul in the 
Bufferings of Jesus made her frame to trem- 
ble, and drank up the fountains of her in- 
nocent life. Follow her on the journey to 
Calvary, where the rude rabble rhade her a 
mark for their insults. Behold her em- 
bracing the cross in the darkness which 
had terrified even the inhuman murderers, 
and waiting six long hours that the cup of\ 
sorrow might be drained to its dregs, that 
God's love might be satisfied, and man's 



234 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

malignity satiated. See her calmly walking 
to the sepulchre to lay the beloved of her 
heart upon His stony bed, and then pa- 
tiently going to the house of St- John to 
await the resurrection. And when He as- 
cended to His Father, she was left alone 
once more, to bear her exile until the days 
of her great sanctity were accomplished, 
and the chariot of fire should bring her to 
His everlasting embrace. Perfected by pa- 
tience, and full of merits by suffering, she 
passed to the throne of her own child. She 
is an example of that entire submission to 
God which is the end of the Christian life. 
As the angels quietly, peacefully and yet 
swiftly do His will in Heaven, so did she 
on earth obey the divine voice, running 
faster than thought after its every whisper, 
and yet never anxious, never weary, but 
tranquil as the infant Jesus when first He 
lay upon her breast. 

We must imitate her in this patience, if 
we desire to attain conformity with God. 
The work of our sanctification shall go on, 
but not as we have imagined, and our road 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 235 

to heaven shall not be the one which our 
fancies have pictured. That path lies 
through valleys, around the base of high 
mountains, and up the steep accent of crag- 
ged hills. Many of our plans shall be frus- 
trated, and our dearest hopes often disap- 
pointed. We shall toil long and see no 
fruit of our labors. The bright blossom of 
spring shall fall to the ground, and wither 
in the heat of the sun. Let man be silent 
when God works, and when the great hus- 
bandman walks in His garden, let the crea- 
ture be patient. And when the cross brings 
its sacred weight to our shoulders, let us 
improve the day of grace. We suffer be- 
cause we are sinners, and because past 
trausgression has left its mark upon our 
souls. That mark must be burnt out by 
salutary pain, until every trace of defile- 
ment vanishes before the refiner's fire. The 
penitent need not fear in the hour of God's 
greatest mercy The sinner who goes to 
Calvary bears in his flesh the proofs of the 
divine favor. What though disease should 
prey upon our bodies, and like a worm eat 



236 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

away the vigor of our physical life ? The 
chastened flesh will be a more fitting hab- 
itation for the purified soul, and the veil of 
sense will melt before our eyes. Pride will 
be laid low before the altar, and self-love 
will be the victim of the sacrifice. 



CHAPTER XXXI, 

THE PRAYEK OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

" Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, 
honey and milk are under thy tongue ; and the smell of thy 
garments as the smell of frankincense." — Canticles, iv. 11. 

Prayer is the simple act by which the 
creature realizes his dependence upon the 
Creator, and supplicates His favor. It is 
the appointed way of obtaining graces, since 
God, however disposed to shower His bene- 
fits upon us, requires some disposition on 
the part of the receiver. There is, then, no 
spiritual life without prayer, and he who 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 237 

neglects this mean of salvation can have no 
hope of divine mercy. The very first im- 
pulse of the Holy Ghost is to turn the heart 
to Him from whom all life proceeds, and 
every breath of the good christian ought to 
be a supplication for that assistance, with- 
out which there is no good word or work. 
We are in the daily need of temporal 
blessings, and can accomplish absolutely 
nothing in the supernatural order without 
spiritual aid. The sense of our own weak- 
ness naturally turns the soul to the infinite 
fountain of all life and strength, and hence 
the more we understand our own necessity 
the better we are able to pray. For prayer 
no art is required. Any expression of our 
wants to God is acceptable prayer, whether 
the tongue reverently speaks to Him, or 
the eyes look to Him, or any of our senses 
signify the desire of the heart. Yocal 
prayer is the lowest degree, and from this 
we ascend to meditation, to contemplation, 
and even to union with the maker of our 
spirits. In meditation the soul separates 
tself from all sensible things to apply itself 



238 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

to eternal truths, and to discover the divine 
will. God's revelation is thus brought home 
to the individual, and the unchanging veri- 
ties of faith are made real and practical to 
our minds. Contemplation carries us a 
step higher, lifting the understanding to a 
certain fruition of the object and author of 
truth, and fastening all the powers of the 
soul in a firm gaze upon Him, who always 
reveals Himself in every light He gives. 
And they who really aim after perfection 
may attain to that prayer of union of which 
the saints have written, and which no hu- 
man language can describe. It is the 
mutual embrace of God and the soul that 
seeks Him, where the creature who receives 
everything, finds himself in the arras of Him 
whose bounty gives everything, and even 
gives Himself. There is no limit to the de- 
sire of the sanctified soul, even as there is 
no end to the prodigality with which God 
lavishes his favors. In the blessed mother 
of our Lord we find an example of the high- 
est degree of prayer, and an instructor in 
this most important lesson of the spiritual 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 239 

life. Her communion with her Maker 
began before her birth, when the strong 
hand of her Redeemer drove the adversary 
away, and chased every shadow of the fall 
from her understanding. Then ascended to 
heaven the acceptable incense of her pure 
spirit, passing beyond the golden censors of 
the angels to the immediate presence of her 
Beloved. The stages of perfection were 
passed, and when she opened her eyes upon 
this world of sin, she was bound to God by 
a union which no power could disturb, 
The all-merciful Creator took the soul of 
Mary into His own hands, and filled her 
with light, and folded her to His own 
bosom. Her early years were devoted to 
His service in the temple, where an uninter- 
rupted contemplation of the divine perfec- 
tions was the food and solace of her whole 
being. And when the auspicious hour 
arrived, and the Word was made flesh in 
her womb, it was only a fitting reward for 
that incessant desire witl^ which she had 
sought Him. As in all things she renounced 
herself, and looked alone to His power, so 



240 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

every action of her life was a prayer going 
directly to His heart. The faith and all- 
consuming love with which she looked upon 
her child were ever the most sublime acts 
of contemplation. And day by day she 
drew nearer to perfect conformity with the 
divine model visibly before her. As the 
prayer of His creatures goes up to His 
throne, and is heard amid the music of 
cherubim and seraphim, so did He on earth 
ever accept Mary's sweet worship. It was 
dearer to Him than the hosannas of heaven. 
When He went upon the duties of His 
ministry she was left to the consolation of 
prayer, and was able to keep up her unin- 
terrupted communion with Him in all His 
wanderings and sufferings. 

The great hour of man's redemption found 
her upon Mount Calvary, there to learn a 
new lesson in her wonderful power of 
prayer, and to be sprinkled with the blood 
of her Son, that she might begin her great 
work of interc^sion. Mary was the only 
light on earth in that dark hour, when the 
whole human race seemed to seek the death 



AKK OP THE COYEXAJri. 241 

of its God. That death opened anew the 
fountains of the divine charity, and the 
afflicted mother, feeling the efficacy of those 
dying agonies, lifted up to heayen her sup- 
plication for guilty man. Her pleading 
words ascended, mingled with the pitying 
cry, ;i Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." The whole life of the 
Blessed Virgin was solitary. When Jesus 
s with her nothing else could be present, 
and when He was taken from her she could 
think of nothing but Him. After th 
cension the holy places of Jerusalem were 
her favorite resort. She sou_ :eps 

of the way of sorrows that she might 
retrace all tl of the passkm. Cal- 

vary and the sepulchre were quiet retreats 
where the remembrances of her child re- 
newed in her soul both the sorrows and the 
consolations of her martyrdom. She passed 
in e<: Him to whom she was wholly 

united, and the day of her assumption but 
lifted her body to the sacred heart on which 
she had rented. Her prayer is now the 
crown of all the in as of heaven, and 

16 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

angels and archangels wait in silence when 
she opens the lips which M are as a dropping 
honeycomb." For "honey and milk are 
under her tongue, and the smell of her gar- 
ments as the smell of frankincencense." To 
her the poor sinner looks with hope, for if 
her lips do but plead his cause, the graces 
of heaven fall like dew upon his soul. It 
is her office, now that she is inseparable 
from her Son, to pray for the souls for 
whom He died, and for the kingdom which 
He has established on earth ; that kingdom 
over which He reigns, and which His human 
heart ever draws nearer and nearer to His 
sacred person. So in truth Mary is one of 
the greatest consolations of our religion, 
not only as she guides us by her example in 
every way of holiness, but also as her prayers 
encircle the soul that seeks for God, and 
never fail in the hour of battle and danger. 
And let man offend the divine majesty as 
he will, her heart alway sends up its sweet 
sacrifice to make reparation for our count- 
less ingratitudes. 

The beautiful spirit of prayer which the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT 243 

Blessed Virgin thus exhibited, may* through 
God's mercy incite us to seek a union with 
her heart, and through her with the heart 
of Jesus. To see Him whom we love alway 
before our eyes, and in each action to seek 
His favor, is to pray without ceasing. This 
habit of recollection will drive away distrac- 
tions from our devotions, and make the 
state of prayer habitual, while it will open 
to Ui new treasures in the mercy which has 
redeemed us. Let us call upon God at all 
times, aud especially in the hour of tempta- 
tion. And why should not His goodness 
allure us to follow on in the path ot prayer, 
till the vision of faith is enlarged, and the 
spiritual world becomes our familiar abode ? 
This path leads to joys no stranger can 
know, to perfect union with Him whose em- 
brace is bliss inconceivable, who desires to 
espouse our souls, that w« may ln.ve no 
lover but Him. This is the path of every 
christian, and the mountain heights to which 
it guides are open to every heart that really 
longs and seeks after God. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE UNION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN WITH GOD. 

" His left hand is under my head, and His right hand 
shall embrace me." — Concuss, viii. 3. 

The reflections which we have made upon 
the life and virtues of the holy mother of 
God, have at least convinced us that her 
praises can never worthily be celebrated by 
any human language. She is a creature 
exalted far above all the works of the Al- 
mighty, approaching so near the eternal 
throne, that she is lost in the glory which 
surrounds it. Her ways put on the mys. 
tery which belongs to the divine counsels, 
and her virtues assume proportions far above 
the reach of our conception. Her joys are 
like the bliss which attends the iufinite per- 
fections of God, her sorrows partake of that 
unapproachable woe which overwhelmed the 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 245 

incarnate Word, and her glories borrow the 
radiance of that city which the divine being 
perfectly illuminates. She stands alone in 
the history of our race, without an equal 
and without comparison. And the reason 
of her great exaltation is not only her ma- 
ternal relation to her creator, but her en- 
tire union with Him through the power of 
His grace. To this must be ascribed her 
bliss on earth and her peerless crown in 
heaven. This union was complete and en- 
tire, and the touching verses of the Canti- 
cles feebly describe the raptures of that 
love which bound her to her Beloved, the 
power of that beauty which drew Him to 
her embrace. In her heart there never had 
been for one instant anything but devotion 
to Him, and her race had been run with 
speed far surpassing the flight of the angels. 
She came up from the desert of this sinful 
world, leaning upon her child, flowing with 
delights, " with her head like carmel, and 
the hairs of her head as the purple of the 
king bound in the channels " God could 
not sufficiently reward her great sanctity, 



246 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

and so He lavished upon her the profusion 
of His gifts. He became her child, and 
then took her to His arms and held her to 
His bosom. We poor sinners look up daz- 
zled at the sight, even as the traveler 
stands in awe at the foot of the mountain 
which bathes its head in the distant heaven. 
But Mary is our dearest mother, and her 
neart yearns for us while we are pilgrims in 
this valley of tears. She beckons to us to 
follow her footsteps. She begs us to seek a 
thorough purification from our sins, and 
then opening wide the eternal gates, she 
points to the goal of all true ambition. 
Seek, my children, conformity with God, 
and never rest in your warfare till you 
nave laid every foe prostrate, and find 
union with the author of your being. Seek 
your perfection in every trial of life, in 
every joy which illumines your pathway, 
and be never satisfied till you, like me, lay 
your head upon the breast of Jesus, and 
His right arm holds you safe forever. 

It is not too much for us to seek union 
with God. It is the end of the Christian 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 247 

life, and anything less will never satisfy 
our souls. Any lower aim will make our 
journey long and bitter, and its end uncer- 
tain. We may deceive ourselves, but we 
can never cheat our all-seeing judge of that 
which is His due. To perfectly fulfill God's 
law is the condition of salvation, now that 
the stream of life flows at our feet, and the 
sacraments all around us are working their 
miracles of grace. To different hearts God 
manifests His will with different attrac- 
tions, but all He calls to peace and union 
with Himself. Is it too much to hope that 
our meditations upon the life of Mary will 
stir up our energies and allure us even to 
the heights of virtue ? God can do nothing 
more to move our wills or render the nar- 
row path inviting. If Jesus and Mary do 
not draw us by their very loveliness, there 
can be no place for us in heaven. And if 
in reality we seek for entire union, and love 
which casts out all fear, then faithfully must 
we walk on, as the celestial spouse may lead 
us. We ascend by degrees. We travel on 
step by step, and little by little make dto- 



248 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

gress in the divine life. There is no cause 
for discouragement when temptations crowd 
upon us, and darkness takes from our souls 
their wonted consolations. We seek God 
for His own sake, and not for any of His 
gifts. Heaven itself would be nothing with- 
out Him, and anything less than Himself 
would never fill p our desire. If we only 
correspond with His graces, we cannot be 
separated from Him, and sooner or later 
we must rest in the bosom of His love. Sin 
in all its effects must be utterly driven from 
our hearts, for He can never accept a di- 
vided affection. There must be no attach- 
ment to sin which is so offensive to Him, 
There must be sincere contrition for all past 
transgressions, and the spirit of penance 
which seeks to efface every vestige of 
former disobedience. There must be a firm 
and unrelenting purpose to do the divine 
will in all things, great or small, and the 
moment that it is manifested to us. We 
must set a high value upon the inspirations 
of the Holy Spirit, and fear to be careless 
or unfaithful, lest the blessed Comforter be 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 249 

grieved and speak to us no longer. We 
must learn to hate sin with all the intensity 
of our souls, and to regard it as the only- 
evil that could befall us. With such dispo- 
sitions we shall be safe, and our pilgrimage 
will surely lead us to the desired end. It 
is wonderful what grace will do in souls 
that are free, and well disposed. The blood 
of Christ washes away every defilement, 
and makes the sinner whiter than snow, 
while like a healing ointment it goes down 
into every wound and gives health to the 
exhausted energies. The divine word like 
a fruitful seed is planted in the heart and 
springs up in luxuriance and beauty. One 
by one all defects and imperfections pass 
away, and virtues take strong and death- 
less roots, till the man is transformed into 
the likeness of the Son of God. Though 
he know it not, and is never allowed to 
measure his progress, he is changing day 
by day, putting off the old man with all his 
sinful lusts, and putting on the new man 
with his victorious power over death and 
hell. The veil which hides God's counsels 



250 ARK OF THE COVENANT. 

gradually melts away according to the 
words of the apostle. " When they shall 
be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be 
taken away. For where the Spirit of the 
Lord is, there is liberty. But we all be- 
holding the glory of the Lord with face un- 
covered, are transformed into the same 
image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit 
of the Lord."* For growth is a law of life, 
and life coming from God bears us to Him 
again, who is life unchanging and eternal. 
We need not be anxious about the means 
by which the jealous lover of souls seeks 
to accomplish His work in us. He alone can 
fathom our want and put His finger upon 
the caus^ of our malady. He will keep us 
humble and patient by the very mode of 
our sanctification, and He will go before 
us to remove every obstacle. Light will 
come whenever it is good for us, and con- 
solations will not be withheld when we can 
bear them. We shall find peace and rest 
even on earth, cleanness of conscience, and 
tranquillity, which is a foretaste of that 

*2Cor.,iii. 16-18. 



ARK OF THE COVENANT. 251 

bliss with which one day the presence of 
God will fill our souls. Behold then the 
way of life, the way of the immaculate, the 
path which Jesus has marked out, and 
which Mary has trod. It is open to all, 
and is our sure way to heaven. 



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